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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The University of Chicago Publications 
IN Religious Education 

EDITED BY 

ERNEST D. BURTON SHAILER MATHEWS 

THEODORE G. SOARES 



principles and methods of religious 
education 



THE CITY INSTITUTE FOR 
RELIGIOUS TEACHERS 



The University of Chicago Press 
Chicago, Illinois 



THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
LONDON AND EDINBURGH 

THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 
TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO 

KARL W. HIERSEMANN 
LEIPZIG 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



THE CITY INSTITUTE 

FOR RELIGIOUS 

TEACHERS 



By 
Walter Scott Athearn 

Professor of Religious Education, Drake University, 

and Director of the Des Moines 

Sunday School Institute 




THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



^k: 



Copyright igis By 
The University of Chicago 



All Rights Reserved 



Published March 1915 



MAR 22 \m 



Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 



'aA397215 



GENERAL PREFACE 

The progress in religious education in the last few 
years has been highly encouraging. The subject 
has attained something of a status as a scientific 
study, and significant investigative and experimen- 
tal work has been done. More than that, trained 
men and women in increasing numbers have been 
devoting themselves to the endeavor to work out 
in churches and Sunday schools the practical prob- 
lems of organization and method. 

It would seem that the time has come to pre- 
sent to the large body of workers in the field 
of religious education some of the results of the 
studies and practice of those who have attained 
a measure of educational success. With this end 
in view the present series of books on 'Principles 
and Methods of Religious Education" has been 
undertaken. 

It is intended that these books, while thoroughly 
scientific in character, shall be at the same time 
popular in presentation, so that they may be avail- 
able to Sunday-school and church workers every- 
where. The endeavor is definitely made to take 
into account the small school with meager equip- 
ment, as well as to hold before the larger schools 
the ideals of equipment and training. 



viii General Preface 

The series is planned to meet as far as possible all 
the problems that arise in the conduct of the educa- 
tional work of the church. While the Sunday 
school, therefore, is considered as the basal organi- 
zation for this purpose, the wider educational work 
of the pastor himself and that of the various other 
church organizations receive due consideration as 
parts of a unified system of education in morals 
and religion. 

The Editors 



FOREWORD 

The City Institute for Religious Teachers has 
come in response to a demand for scientifically- 
trained teachers of religion in church schools. It 
is but one of the results of that larger movement 
which has for a decade been seeking ^^ to inspire the 
educational forces of our country with the religious 
ideal; to inspire the religious forces of our country 
with the educational ideal; and to keep before the 
public mind the ideal of Religious Education, and 
the sense of its need and value." 

Historically the modern city institute has not 
developed from the earlier experiments in the field 
of teacher-training. It is a direct contribution of 
the college to the cause of religious education, and 
this is but an earnest of what may be expected 
from this source when all the church colleges of 
the country have established well-equipped depart- 
ments of religious education. 

Following a joint conference of the International 
Sunday School Association and the representatives 
of the evangelical denominations, in 1908, at which 
time the First Standard and Advanced Standard 
courses were formulated, the country was flooded 
with hastily prepared fifty-lesson drillbooks and 
outline manuals, while teacher-training classes. 



X Foreword 

varying in size from a single pupil to several hun- 
dred, were organized in all parts of the country 
by promotion agents of denominational publishing 
houses. In many cities throughout the country 
union classes were formed to study the First 
Standard course and, later, groups of classes were 
conducted in a few cities for the purpose of teaching 
the various subjects required for an advanced 
teacher-training certificate. This federation of 
advanced teacher-training classes often took the 
title, *Xity Training School,'' or ^^ Teacher Train- 
ing Institute," but prior to 191 1 no city institute 
was organized with ideals higher than the First 
Standard and Advanced Standard courses. 

As might have been expected, this teacher- 
training movement fell of its own weight. It was 
founded upon a false theory of professional train- 
ing; its textbooks were inadequate and unpeda- 
gogical, and its leaders in many instances were 
untrained enthusiasts, having much zeal but little 
or no professional knowledge. The collapse of 
this teacher-training program called out such 
caustic criticism and such searching analysis of the 
courses and textbooks from specialists in the field 
of religious education that it is now quite generally 
conceded that new texts must be written and new 
and higher standards erected. The constructive 
programs proposed by college men who are special- 
izing in this field have been put to practical test. 



Foreword xi 

and there is every reason to believe that the teacher- 
training courses soon to be adopted will be sup- 
ported by sound educational theory. 

The first city institute organized upon modem 
lines with high educational ideals was established 
in Des Moines, Iowa, in the fall of 191 1. It cut 
entirely loose from the old standards, repudiated 
the so-called standard texts, and ignored all seals, 
badges, and certificates. From the beginning it 
sought to do a high grade of university extension 
work. It has completed three years of successful 
school work. Forty-one church schools have been 
represented in its student body. Thirteen religious 
denominations have co-operated in this enterprise. 
The average attendance for each session for the 
entire three years has been above one hundred and 
fifty. The first class to complete the three years' 
course numbered twenty-three of the most repre- 
sentative citizens of the community. 

This volume is the outgrowth of the author's 
three years of experience as director of the 
Des Moines City Institute. During these three 
years he has had correspondence with over six 
hundred cities in the United States and Canada 
regarding the details of the Des Moines plan. 
Over fifty cities have successfully launched city 
institutes based largely upon the Des Moines 
experiment. This widespread interest in a higher 
type of training for the religious teachers of our 



xii Foreword 

American cities has led the author to prepare the 
following chapters. If he refers constantly to the 
Des Moines City Institute and presents the particu- 
lar methods that have there been employed, it is 
in no spirit of egotism, but only as one may properly 
ofifer to his fellow-workers the results of an experi- 
ment which has had a measure of success. The 
author has made use throughout his discussion of 
the suggestions and criticisms that have come from 
many sources and from many other educational 
experiments. 

The volume is sent out with the hope that it 
will be helpful to those earnest men and women 
who are interested in the estabUshing of high-grade 
city institutes for religious teachers. 

The Author 

Des Moines, Iowa 
October 23, 19 14 



CONTENTS 

PART I. ORGANIZATION 

CHAPTSA PAGE 

I. Factors in an Efficient Church School . . 3 
§ I. The Minister, p. 4; § 2. The Superintendent, 
p. 7; § 3. The Teachers, p. 8; § 4. The Church 
Membership, p. 12. 

II. A City System of Religious Education . . 14 
§ I. A City Superintendent of Religious Educa- 
tion, p. 16; § 2. A Model Church School, p. 17; 
§ 3. A Common Standard, p. 20; § 4. A City In- 
stitute for Religious Teachers, p. 27; § 5. A City 
Board of Religious Education, p. 27; § 6. The 
Evolution of the System, p. 28. 

III. Organization of a City Institute .... 29 
§ I. The Nature of the Institute, p. 29; § 2. De- 
tails of Organization, p. 31; §3. Relation to 
Other Bodies, p. 37. 

IV. The Institute Faculty 42 

§ I. The Director, p. 42; § 2. The Selection of the 
Faculty, p. 44; § 3. The Supervision of the 
Faculty, p. 49; § 4- Popularizing the Faculty, 
' p. 51. 

V. The Institute Curriculum 54 

§ I. Length of the Course, p. 54; § 2. Groups of 
Courses Offered, p. 55; § 3. Order of Election of 
Courses, p. 56; § 4. Requirements for Gradua- 
tion, p. 57; § 5. Organization by Classes, p. 59; 
§ 6. Affiliations, p. 59. 

VI. The Weekly Program 69 

§ I. The Two Plans, p. 69; § 2. General Lec- 
tures, p. 71; §3. The Recitation Period, p. 76; 
§ 4. The Opening Session, p. 78. 

xiii 



xiv Contents 



VII. Institute Finance 82 

§ I. Expenses, p. 82; § 2. Sources of Revenue, 
p. 84. 

VIII. The Campaign for Students 89 

§ I. The Period of Information and Agitation, 
p. 89; § 2. The Initial Enrolment, p. 89; § 3. The 
Follow-up Campaign, p. 99. 

IX. Methods of Promoting the Institute . . 107 
§ I. The Institute Itself, p. 107; § 2. Messages 
to the Churches, p. 108; §3. Exhibits, p. no; 
§4. Promotion Literature and Reports, p. in; 
§ 5. Visitors' Tickets and Special Lectures, p. 118; 
§ 6. The Continuous Campaign, p. 119. 

PART 11. COURSES OF INSTRUCTION 

X. Biblical Courses 125 

§ I. The Old Testament, p. 126; § 2. The Life 
of Christ, p. 129; § 3. The Apostolic Age, p. 130; 
§ 4. Biblical Introduction, p. 131; § 5. The Holy 
Land and Its People, p. 131. 

XL Departmental Courses 134 

§ I. The Beginners or Kindergarten Department, 
p. 136; § 2. The Primary Department, p. 138; 
§ 3. The Junior Department, p. 140; § 4. The 
Intermediate Department, p. 142; § 5. The 
Senior Department, p. 145; § 6. The Adult De- 
partment, p. 147. 

XII. Professional and General Courses . . . 148 
§ I. Elementary Psychology and Pedagogy, p. 
148; § 2. Supervision and Management, p. 150; 
§ 3. Story-TeUing, p. 151. 



PART I 
ORGANIZATION 



CHAPTER I 
FACTORS IN AN EFFICIENT CHURCH SCHOOL 

An adequate discussion of the problems of the 
religious education of the children of a city must 
take into account those factors which are essential 
to the success of each school within the city system. 
The efficiency of the schools of a city cannot be 
increased merely by federating them into a system. 
Each individual school within the system must 
be raised to its highest efficiency. 

Many city organizations in the past have failed 
because they simply federated the schools as they 
were and did nothing which was consciously 
directed toward the modffication of the schools 
themselves. The enthusiasm generated at the 
meeting of such '^unions'' soon fades away, leav- 
ing the schools still running along the old tradi- 
tional channels. 

There are at least four factors necessary to the 
success of a school within the local church, and 
those who would improve the rehgious teaching 
of a city must direct their attention to these funda- 

I mental conditions of successful church schools. 
These four essential factors are: (i) a minister 
who is the pastor of his church school; (2) a super- 
intendent with an educational ideal; (3) a body 



4 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

of growing teachers, and (4) a church membership 
fully in sympathy with the ideals of the modern 
church school. These factors are worthy of a 
more extended treatment than that which is 
possible in this brief introductory chapter. 

§ I. THE MINISTER 

The first requirement is a minister who is the 
pastor of his church school. When church-school 
leaders are listing their resources and their prob- 
lems, they almost invariably place the ministers 
among their problems. Not that the minister 
is hostile to the school, but that he is often unin- 
formed and not actively interested in the problems 
of religious growth. Too often his theological 
seminary has taught him to speak a dead language 
to a dying world, and he has no message for a living, 
developing, growing world. A commission report- 
ing in 1905, after a careful investigation, disclosed 
the fact that 95 per cent of the courses given in the 
theological seminaries of this country had special 
reference to a ministry to adults and only 5 per 
cent of the courses had any bearing upon the needs 
of the children and young people who make up the 
larger part of the church membership. 

The great waves of conversion, as shown by the 
studies of Starbuck and Coe, are experienced 
by young people of from twelve to fourteen and 
from sixteen to eighteen years of age. The great 



Factors in an Efficient Church School 5 

majority of conversions come before twenty years 
of age. It is estimated that the average age of 
the American preacher's morning congregation is 
thirty-five years. The absence of children from 
the worship services of the church and the fact 
that millions of children pass the critical and fateful 
years of adolescence without accepting Jesus 
Christ and go out to join the army of non-church- 
goers are not alone the fault of teachers and parents. 
The minister is not without responsibility for 
these conditions. 

The church has a right to ask that its preacher 
shall minister to the whole congregation, and that 
he shall have special care for the young and tender 
members of the flock. It is the business of the 
church to save sinners, and it is also the business 
of the church to save boys and girls from becoming 
sinners. The minister who neglects either of the 
two great tasks has not discharged his whole 
duty. 

It is not unreasonable for the church school to 
ask its pastor to devote at least one day a week 
to the problems of religious education. He should 
read the most modern literature on the subject 
and be prepared to give definite and positive help 
to teachers, parents, and ofl&cers. He should be 
able to direct the home reading of the children of 
the community and supervise their plays and 
games. He should determine the attitude of his 



6 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

people toward the child life of the community. 
His opinions on the church school and the problems 
of rehgious and moral education in general should 
be based on adequate, authoritative information. 
A preacher who ministers only to the adult portion 
of the congregation and gives no skilful direction 
to the rehgious nurture of the children of the con- 
gregation fails to meet the demands of the modern 
church. There must be in every city some agency 
at work teaching the people that they have a right 
to expect this service of their ministers and teaching 
the ministers at the same time how to render the 
service demanded by an enhghtened community. 
In every city there will be found thoughtful, 
earnest, progressive pastors wilHng to join in any 
movement for better things. Their leadership 
and example are invaluable assets to the organiza- 
tion which undertakes to give the modern educa- 
tional vision to all the clergy of a city. A hopeful 
sign of better conditions is the fact that theological 
seminaries are modifying their courses to meet the 
demands of the modern church, and ministers 
whose training did not include child psychology 
and the principles and methods of moral and reh- 
gious education are in increasing numbers availing 
themselves of summer schools and institutes where 
special attention is given to these subjects. A 
new day is dawning in the realm of rehgious educa- 
tion, and when the new day has fully come every 



Factors in an Efficient Church School 7 

minister will be by training and by choice the pastor 
of the whole church, 

§2. THE SUPERINTENDENT 

The second need is a superintendent with an 
educational ideal. No school can be highly suc- 
cessful unless its superintendent is a man fully 
abreast of the times, and by education and tempera- 
ment capable of directing a school in the details 
of a definite educational program. There are 
many churches in every city which need and can 
afford to have the services of a trained director 
of religious education. This officer would give 
his whole time to training the teachers and super- 
vising the educational agencies of the church. 
Many churches already employ trained speciaKsts 
for this work. In fact, there has been organized 
a National Association of Directors of Religious 
Education.^ This ofi&cer is not an assistant pastor. 
He is the teacher, the educator, the professor, and 
his duties do not conflict with those of the preacher, 
the pastor, the clergyman. A number of such 
educational speciaHsts in a community constitute 
a strong nucleus for the faculty of a city training 
school for church-school teachers and officers. 

In every city there will be many church schools 
depending entirely upon voluntary, untrained 
workers. Those voluntary workers are men and 

^Religious Education y August, 191 3. 



8 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

women of the noblest motives and the highest 
Christian character, and they often bring to their 
work a patriotic devotion that leads them to make 
sacrifices and endure untold hardships for the good 
of the cause they serve, but they are untrained. 
They do not have definite and clear-cut educational 
ideals, and they do not know how to administer 
the details of an educational program. They are 
called to a task for which they are unprepared. 
In this work as in all other work, untrained leader- 
ship is ineffective and dangerous leadership. There 
should therefore be in every city a school for train- 
ing the superintendents of the church schools, and 
every church in the city should have in this school 
one or more persons preparing skilfully to direct 
the teaching service of the church. 

§3. THE teachers 

The third factor is a body of growing teachers. 
No school can do efficient work without efficient 
teachers. To teach rehgion effectively requires a 
knowledge of the subject-matter, a knowledge of 
the pupils, and a knowledge of the best methods 
of instruction. Teachers who assume the respon- 
sibility of the reUgious nurture of a group of boys 
and girls must prepare for the most arduous toil. 
Hard study, the expense and fatigue of conven- 
tions, and the hard grind and discipline of regular 
training classes are the price one must pay for the 



Factors in an Efficient Church School 9 

joy of seeing children grow in grace and the knowl- 
edge of the Lord. 

It is a crime to invite the hungry to an empty table, 
A teacher must not be an empty vessel. The grace 
of God in his heart is not enough; the teacher of 
religion must also have the word of God in his 
head. It is time to abandon the idea that any- 
body can teach a class in the church school. It 
is time for us to insist that the religious nurture 
of our children be placed in the hands of the best 
educated, most talented members of the congrega- 
tion. 

The following is an extract from the rules and 
regulations of the board of education of a typical 
western city. It sets forth the minimum prepara- 
tion required of those who are to teach the secular 
branches to the boys and girls of that city. 

Section i. Regular Grade Teachers. — Teachers shall 
not be elected to the position of regular teacher unless they 
meet the following requirements for eligibility: 

I. General Education: A graduate from a fully ac- 
credited four-year high school. Other things being equal, 
candidates with higher education will be favored. 

II. Professional Training: A two years' course in a 
standard teachers' training school, or its full equivalent. 

III. Experience: Not less than two years' actual teach- 
ing experience in a good graded school, under competent 
supervision, or three years' teaching in village or rural 
school. 

IV. Certificates: A first-class county certificate, or a 
state certificate. 



lo City Institute for Religious Teachers 

V. No person shall be elected to a principalship who 
does not meet the present requirements for teachers. 

Sec. 2. Cadet Teachers, — No candidate shall be con- 
sidered eligible as a cadet or apprentice who does not meet 
the requirements as to general education, certificate, and 
either professional training or experience. No person shall 
be considered eligible whose scholarship is not good as 
shown by his record in high school and training school, and 
who does not possess good health, character, and personality. 

Sec. 3. High-School Teachers, — Teachers hereafter 
elected to high-school positions shall be graduates from 
standard colleges or universities, or the full equivalent, 
and have had special training in the subjects which they 
are to teach, and also successful experience as high-school 
teachers, unless promoted from our own grade schools for 
superior work; but only college or university graduates 
shall be so promoted. Only men and women of strong 
personality, able scholarship, and unquestioned ability as 
teachers should hold positions in the high schools. 

It would be illuminating to place beside the 
foregoing eligibility requirements, which society 
makes to protect childhood from unskilful secular 
training, a Hst of the qualifications demanded by 
the churches of the same city in order that they 
might protect their children from unskilful religious 
training. Gk)od Christian character is not enough 
to quahfy one who is to teach arithmetic or geog- 
raphy or history, neither is it sufficient preparation 
for one who is to teach the Golden Rule, the geog- 
raphy of the Holy Land, or the history of the Jews. 
Children who are under college-trained teachers 
in the pubHc schools can have nothing but con- 



Factors in an Efficient Church School ii 

tempt for an ignoramus in the church school; and 
prizes, contests, and brass-band parades will not 
be enough to hold pupils in the classes of such 
teachers. 

It is not too much to ask that the teachers in the 
church school shall do as effective work in their 
field as the public-school teachers do in that field; 
but when a city asks this it takes upon itself the 
responsibility for the training of its religious 
teachers. In addition to training classes in the 
local schools, there should be in every city a central, 
inter-denominational training school in which all 
the churches co-operate in maintaining thorough 
courses with high educational standards. This 
central institute or training school would be the 
center from which the professional spirit would 
spread to all the churches in the city. A teacher 
with the professional spirit will be a growing 
teacher. The following are among the marks of 
the growing teacher: 

1. Intense interest in his present class. 

2. Regular attendance upon teachers' meetings 
and workers' conferences. 

3. Capacity to judge his own methods, and con- 
stant improvement in his methods of work. 

4. Attendance upon educational conventions, 
institutes, and schools of methods. 

5. A growing Ubrary. The church should re- 
quire each teacher to own as a minimum 



12 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

equipment the following books: (a) an 

American Revised self -pronouncing Bible; 

(ft) a standard one-volume Bible dictionary; 

(c) a one- volume commentary; (d) a biblical 

geography; (e) a volume on child psychology; 

(/) a volume on methods of teaching; (g) a 

volume on the organization and management 

of the church school; (h) a volume deaHng 

with the department in which the teacher 

works. To these there should be added at 

least one volume each year on some phase 

of the problem of reHgious education. 

The city institute may be the center of this 

reading interest, and a circulating Hbrary may be 

directed by the Hbrarian of the institute. Every 

city should provide the means of professional and 

spiritual growth for its reHgious teachers if it would 

build an effective system of church schools. 

§4. THE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 

The fourth requirement for efl&ciency is a church 
membership fully in sympathy with the ideals of the 
modern church school. Unless the church is in- 
structed regarding the needs of the children it will 
not willingly furnish equipment, buildings, Kbrary, 
and trained leadership for the church school. The 
church school should be in reaHty the school of the 
church, and the church should be kept constantly 
in touch with the most advanced movements in 



Factors in an Efficient Church School 13 

the field of reKgious education. The child should 
be frequently ^^set in the midst'' of the congrega- 
tion. Experts in psychology, religious pedagogy, 
and the organization and administration of religious 
education should frequently be given the regu- 
lar preaching hour for the presentation of the vital 
problems of religious education; and groups of 
men and women should be organized for the pur- 
pose of giving special study to the specific problems 
of the children of the local church. It is a mistake 
for any group of teachers to try to force upon a 
congregation a program of education for which 
it is not prepared. The new methods cannot 
succeed without the sympathetic co-operation of 
the church itself. There must therefore be at all 
times a definite, well-organized method of educat- 
ing the church at the same time that the teachers 
are being prepared, so that both may move forward 
without friction. 

Those who would build a city system of reKgious 
education must provide some means of stimulating 
the membership of the churches of the city to an 
intelligent interest in the problems of the modern 
church school. 



CHAPTER II 
A CITY SYSTEM OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

The moral and religious education of the chil- 
dren of a city demands the united efforts of all the 
religious agencies of the city. This co-operative 
activity should take the form of a well-organized 
city system of rehgious education. 

Without interfering with the plans and policies 
of denominational boards, the central city organi- 
zation would seek the following results: 

1. To secure uniformity in records and reports. 

2. To secure and distribute information regard- 
ing conditions in religious education in the 
city. 

3. To unify and standardize all inter-school 
activities, such as athletics, contests, etc. 

4. To provide common standards by which to 
measure results. 

5. To provide teacher- training institutes and 
other means of increasing the efficiency of 
teachers and officers, and to furnish faciHties 
for specialization not possible in a local 
school. 

6. To direct the work of rehgious education in 
shops, factories, commercial colleges, and 
other private schools and colleges. 

14 



A City System of Religious Education 15 

7. To seek to unify the work of the public 
schools and the church schools. 

8. To provide the means of stimulating and 
directing the work of weaker schools. 

9. To cultivate good fellowship and the spirit 
of co-operation among the workers of the 
different schools. 

10. To bring to the city educational leaders who 
can speak with authority on the various 
phases of rehgious and moral education. 

11. To conduct central exhibits showing the 
work of the schools of the city. 

12. To co-operate with denominational and 
inter-denominational agencies in all their 
efforts to promote the work of the schools 
of the city. 

In this city system there will be at least five 
distinct features, which, properly correlated, will 
provide adequate training for the workers in the 
church schools and give the needed supervision 
and provide for the necessary unification of all 
the educational agencies of the city. The five 
elements are: (i) a city superintendent of reh- 
gious education, (2) a model church school, 
(3) a common standard, (4) a city institute for 
the training of teachers and officers for the 
church schools, and (5) a city board of rehgious 
education. This chapter suggests the function 
and relative importance of these elements. 



1 6 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

§ I. A ,CITY superintendent OF RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION 

The success of any co-operative educational 
program requires an executive agent upon whom 
will fall the administrative duties of the system. 
This ofl&cer should have general charge of all the 
inter-church educational agencies of the city, 
direct the training school, supervise the model 
school, meet committees from the various churches 
for the purpose of assisting them in working out 
their local educational problems, and promote all 
agencies calculated to raise the character of reli- 
gious and moral education in the city. 

This officer should be a trained educator, who 
will take rank with the city superintendent of 
public schools and who will co-operate with that 
officer in giving the city a scientifically correlated 
system of public schools and church schools, each 
contributing its proper part toward the creation 
of intelHgent Christian citizenship. Coupled with 
this specialized educational training the city super- 
intendent should have skill as an executive, tact, 
good judgment, and an exalted conception of the 
responsibiUties of his high office. 

But a city system of religious education will not 
often be builded from the top down. At first 
this superintendence will be performed by the 
director and faculty of the city institute. These 
officers will finally insist that there be placed over 



A City System of Religious Education 17 

them a salaried educator who can devote his whole 
time to the educational needs of the churches of 
the city. It will often happen that an unpaid 
director of the city institute will be asked to give 
his whole time to the churches of the city in the 
capacity of city superintendent. It will be very 
natural for a salaried director of a city institute to 
be promoted to the city superintendency, retaining 
the general direction of the institute. 

Care must be taken that this oflSce be not filled 
by an officer who is only an executive, a booster, 
or promoter. The one indispensable qualification 
for the position is technical training in the theory 
and practice of moral and religious education. 
Standard colleges and seminaries are introducing 
departments for the training of such leaders, and 
cities should go to the colleges for the output from 
these departments. 

§ 2. A MODEL CHURCH SCHOOL 

Three elements enter into the training of a 
teacher, viz., knowledge, observation, and practice. 
The city institute can provide a means of increasing 
the knowledge of the teachers of the city, but the 
observation of good teaching and the actual prac- 
tice in handling classes will require the establishing 
of a model church school to be conducted, probably 
on Sunday afternoons, by the faculty of the insti- 
tute. Pending the estabhshing of the model 



1 8 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

school the students of the institute may be given 
their observation and practice teaching in the 
various schools of the city, such schools to be desig- 
nated by the faculty of the institute. The best 
work in the city should always be pointed out to 
teachers in training, and young teachers should 
be given opportunity to act as assistants to the 
experienced teachers. There is a task, however, 
which cannot be performed by the apprenticeship 
system; teachers need to do something besides imi- 
tate good teachers. They need to observe methods 
of teaching under a controlled environmenk In a 
model school they can see how the theory and 
material of the classroom will work in actual prac- 
tice. Here their minds can be fixed upon the 
principle of instruction which they are learning 
rather than on the manner of the teacher and the 
response of the school. 

A model school should not be established until 
the faculty of the institute, the director, and the 
city superintendent of rehgious education are con- 
vinced that public sentiment, adequate finance, and 
a dependable group of competent helpers are avail- 
able. The leaders must first estabhsh themselves 
with the teachers of the city; after this they may 
hope successfully to launch a model school. Such 
a school will always be assailed as *^ theoretical'' and 
'^ unpractical'' by the devotees of old methods, and 
sometimes by so-called Sunday-school ^'speciaKsts'' 



A City System of Religious Education 19 

who have not had sufficient training to be able 
really to tell what is going on in the model school. 
Those who are in charge of the model school must 
expect such criticism and go straight ahead, paying 
no attention to the ^^wail of the unprepared," but 
resting secure in the behef that their finished pro- 
duct will vindicate them and eventually estabHsh 
their methods in the schools of the city. In this 
way, and in this way only, can new methods 
actually be tried out and teachers created who 
understand the fundamental principles which 
underhe the methods they use. 

Only highly trained and experienced teachers 
should undertake the direction of a model school. 

A model school must be absolutely under the 
control of the faculty. For this reason it is usually 
best to select a central location in which a mission 
school is needed and estabUsh a school which shall 
serve the double purpose of giving religious instruc- 
tion to children not otherwise provided for and 
of affording opportunity to illustrate the methods 
of the institute faculty. A model school is an 
essential element in a city system of rehgious 
education, but it is the most difficult element to 
manage and it will usually be the last to be estab- 
hshed, coming at the climax of the long process 
of evolution from disorganized and inefficient 
religious teaching to a highly organized and effect- 
ive city system of church schools. 



20 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

§3. a common standard 
In order that uniform work may be done and 
common ideals may be held before the schools of 
a city, it is necessary that a common standard of 
excellence be agreed upon and a system of inspec- 
tion be provided. 

The standard selected must contain the elements 
of an efi&cient school. The items in the standard 
must not be selected by compromise, and no 
thought must be taken as to the ability of schools 
to reach the standard. The one guiding question 
is: What elements are essential to an efficient 
school ? 

The well-known ^'Dayton standard" may be 
held up as an example of an unscientifically con- 
structed standard. It is the result of a conference 
of the International Sunday School Association 
and the Sunday School Council of EvangeKcal 
Denominations held at Dayton, Ohio, January 19- 
24, 1913. The ten-point standard adopted at that 
time has been the basis of the ^^ Front Rank" 
and ^^ First Line" standards of the various denomi- 
nations. The items in the standard are: 

1. Cradle Roll. 

2. Home Department. 

3. Organized Bible classes in secondary and 
adult divisions. 

4. Teacher-training. 

5. Graded organization and instruction. 



A City System of Religious Education 21 

6. Missionary instruction and offering. 

7. Temperance instruction. 

8. Definite decision for Christ urged. 

9. Offering for denominational Sunday-school 
work. 

10. Workers' conference regularly held. 

The following three affiliation or association 
points were adopted as the minimum additional 
requirements for an International standard school: 

1. Offering for inter-denominational organized 
Sunday-school work. 

2. Annual statistical report to county asso- 
ciation. 

3. Attendance at annual county convention. 
It is to be regretted that the Dayton conference 

did not contribute more definitely to the solution 
of the problems involved in the standardizing of 
church schools. At best the Dayton agreement 
is a compromise on the basis of the things we now 
have; there is no attempt to provide the funda- 
mental elements without which standardization 
is impossible. Mere uniformity in practice and 
similarity of organization and nomenclature will 
not standardize the church schools. At least four 
elements absolutely fundamental to a standardized 
school are entirely ignored in the Dayton standard.^ 

' For a further discussion of the problem of standardizing 
the church school see Biblical World, XLI, No. 5, May, 19 13, 
pp. 322-26. For comparative standards of the public rural 



22 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

They are: 

1. Relation to the church, involving provision 
for scientific educational leadership. 

2. Adequate buildings and equipment. 

3. Correlation of educational activities. 

4. The element of time. 

A new ten-point standard. — The following 'Hen- 
point standard" has been in use in the city of 
Des Moines for two years. It has proved a prac- 
tical basis of standardization. It includes the 
elements essential to educational efficiency and 
the more secondary items which have been em- 
bodied in earlier standards. 

I. Relation to the Church: 

1. The church board, vestry, or session, as the case may 
be, shall sustain a standing Committee on Religious Educa- 
tion, which shall have general charge of the school. 

2. The church must assume the entire financial responsi- 
bility of the church school, providing for its expenses in 
the regular budget of the church. 

II. Adequate Building and Equipment: 

Building arranged for departmental assemblies and 
classes separated by screens, or separate classrooms; black- 
boards for each class, maps, charts, and illustrative material; 
Bibles owned generally and used by the school. 

schools see Missouri State Course of Study for the Rural and Graded 
Schools for 1913, especially pp. 165-67; also the 1913 edition of 
the Manual of the Elementary Course of Study for the common 
schools of Wisconsin. Illinois also issues a very suggestive 
scheme for grading the rural schools which may be secured from 
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



A City System of Religious Education 23 

in. Correlation of Educational Agencies: 

Graded activities correlated with graded instruction. 
All young people's societies, junior societies, clubs, gilds, 
etc., under direction of the Committee on Religious Educa- 
tion, so that one committee shall control both sides of the 
teaching process — impression and expression. (See report 
of a committee on * Correlation of the Educational Agencies 
of the Local Church," Religious Education, April, 19 13, 
332 South Michigan Ave., Chicago.) 

IV. Graded Curriculum and Graded Worship: 

Departmental assemblies and adequate graded instruc- 
tion in Christian knowledge. 

V. Graded Organization: 
The International standard is as follows: 

1. Cradle Roll (children under four years). 

2. Beginners Department (children four and five years 
of age). 

3. Primary Department (children six, seven, and eight 
years of age) . 

4. Junior Department (children nine to twelve years of 
age). 

5. Intermediate Department (children thirteen to six- 
teen years of age); classes organized. 

6. Senior Department (pupils seventeen to twenty 
years of age) ; classes organized. 

7. Adult Department (all persons over twenty years of 
age). 

8. Home Department. 

This plan is being gradually modified to harmonize more 
closely with the needs of unfolding child life. (For bib- 
liography and further discussion see, Atheam, The Church 
School, pp. 33-36.) 



24 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

VI. Training for Sunday-School Leadership: 

1. Teacher-training class. 

a) Taking courses approved by the International 
Sunday School Association or by the Denomina- 
tional Commission or Department of Religious 
Education. 

b) Having library and equipment approved by the 
Denominational Commission or Department of 
Religious Education. 

2. Workers' conference meeting regularly to consider 
problems of church-school organization, manage- 
ment, etc. 

VII. Special Instruction and Activities: 

1. Evangelistic; instructing and inviting pupils to 
become Christians. 

2. Missionary instruction, correlated with the regular 
curriculimi. 

3. Seeking to enlist volunteers for the ministry and the 
mission field. 

4. Temperance instruction, correlated with the regular 
curriculum. 

5. Some definite plan for cultivating the church-going 
habit for all pupils above the primary grades. 

VIII. The Element of Time: 

1. Not less than one hour each week for worship and 
study, not including the church service. 

2. All pupils above primary grade meeting not less than 
one hour each week for some form of expressional work 
correlated with the work of the Sunday school. 

IX. Benevolences: 

1. Offerings to state and national denominational 
Sunday-school boards. 

2. Offerings to home and foreign missions and other 
denominational benevolences. 



A City System of Religious Education 25 

X. Affiliations: 

1. With the Religious Education Association; the school 
should be a member of this association and receive 
its regular publications. 

2. With the International Sunday School Association. 
a) Offerings for inter-denominational organized 

Sunday-school work. 

h) Annual statistical report to the county association. 

c) Delegate attendance at annual county Sunday- 
school convention. 

3. With the American Sunday School Union, receiving 
its reports and keeping in touch with the work being 
done in neglected fields. 

Suggestions for the promotion of a city standard, — 

1. A city standard of excellence will naturally 
grow out of the regular class work of a city insti- 
tute. When the items in the standard have been 
agreed upon by the faculty and director of the 
institute, it may be brought before a general session 
of the institute for explanation, discussion, and 
finally for adoption as the standard of excellence 
recommended by the city institute. 

2. Following the adoption of the standard by 
the institute it should be presented to the city 
board of religious education for ratification. The 
city superintendent of religious education should 
be charged with the duty of promoting the standard 
throughout the city. 

3. The standard should be printed on large cards 
and posted in each church-school building in the 
city. 



26 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

4. It should be made the basis of discussion at 
a series of teachers' meetings. Suggestive pro- 
grams with reference readings might be furnished 
by the city superintendent. This sets the teachers 
of the whole city to the study of the same problem 
and begets common ideals. 

5. Each school in the city should be impartially 
graded by a competent inspector according, to the 
adopted standard, and there should be pointed out 
to each school just what it must do to reach the ideal. 

6. There should be pubKshed annually a list 
of the schools of the city classified as six-point 
schools, seven-point schools, eight-point schools, 
etc. The pubKcation of such a classification of 
schools will have the same stimulating effect on 
church schools that similar classifications have on 
secular schools. 

It is unwise to hold out the thought that all 
schools may easily reach the standard. For 
example, a school in a poorly arranged, inadequate 
building should be frankly told that it cannot be 
a ten-point school until it secures a new building 
and better equipment. It must expect to have a 
lower rating until it remedies its physical handicap. 

When once the institute has created the profes- 
sional spirit among its students they will in turn 
carry the same professional spirit into the local 
schools, and gradually the schools will fall in line 
for the new standard. 



A City System of Religious Education 27 
§4. A city institute for religious 

TEACHERS 

The city institute for the training of teachers 
and officers for the church schools is the heart of a 
city system of church schools. In the organiza- 
tion of a city system of this kind the city institute 
should be the first feature established. From it 
all the rest will naturally evolve. Without it 
none of the other features can succeed. The 
remaining chapters of this book are given over 
to the discussion of the problems involved in 
the organization and administration of such an 
institute. 

§ 5. A CITY BOARD OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

Behind the city superintendent, the model 
school, the common standard, and the city insti- 
tute, there must be a representative school board. 
In cities Kke Des Moines, Iowa, where there is an 
incorporated organization representing all the 
churches of the city, this body may appoint a city 
board of religious education. In other cities the 
board must be secured by other methods, but in all 
cases it must be a small representative body having 
authority to speak for all the churches included in 
the system. This board will do for the church 
schools of the city the same kind of service that a 
board of education does for its public schools. 
The general nature of the board, its function, and 



28 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

the methods of its selection will be further discussed 
in the following chapter. 

§6. the evolution of the system 

A city system of religious education is not built in 
a day. — Such a system of church schools as this 
chapter advocates cannot be purchased at a fac- 
tory and installed ready made. It must develop 
gradually as pubKc sentiment is created for each 
advanced step. There must be those in the com- 
munity who see the end from the beginning and 
they must consciously create public sentiment. 
There must be a period of propaganda before each 
new feature is introduced. The city institute will 
serve as an incubator for new ideas. The leaders 
in this movement must exercise rare judgment in 
the management of the institute and in its gradual 
extension into a perfectly articulated city system 
of church schools. The old gives way slowly, and 
there will be opposition to every advanced step 
from the highest-minded and best-intentioned 
people. But all opposition may be overcome by a 
continuous and vigorous campaign of education. 
No service will bring greater benefits to a city or 
more lasting satisfaction to those engaged in such 
service than the constant and arduous toil and 
sacrifice throughout a series of years which give 
to a city a well-organized and efl&cient system of 
church schools. 



CHAPTER III 

ORGANIZATION OF A CITY INSTITUTE 

§ I . THE NATURE OF THE INSTITUTE 

The city institute is a night school of religious 
education. In the larger centers it may be pos- 
sible to conduct day classes as well as the regular 
night sessions. It must be organized as an edu- 
cational institution, not as an association or a 
convention. There must be a permanency to the 
organization which will enable it to prosecute 
a program which requires a series of years for its 
completion. There must be stability which insures 
a constancy of purpose, and there must be a cen- 
tralizing of authority which secures prompt and 
efficient execution of the plans and poKcies adopted 
for the school. 

It must be kept constantly in mind that this 
is a school for the training of teachers and officers 
for the church schools of the city. There will 
come to the leaders of such movements repeated 
temptations to enlarge the scope of the school to 
include the training of personal workers, social 
service experts, boys' club specialists, and recruits 
for many other worthy educational and philan- 
thropic associations. The temptation to enlarge 
the scope to include the other interests and in this 

29 



30 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

manner secure more students must not be yielded 
to by the friends of the church school. When the 
institute loses its special, distinctive character it 
flattens out, and finally breaks up into a number 
of competing clubs, each insisting that its special 
interest is not being adequately stressed. The 
whole atmosphere of the institute should be that 
of the church school. It should centralize its 
efforts there, and permit no influence to divert 
it from its single purpose, which is to train 
teachers and officers for the church schools of the 
city. 

The efficient administration of a school of this 
kind requires a small board of from five to seven 
people. This school board for the churches of the 
city should if possible represent the churches of 
the city rather than the church schools. In cities 
having inter-church councils composed of delegates 
chosen by the churches of the city, the board of 
religious education could be appointed by that 
body and thus represent the churches directly. 
The training of teachers and officers is a legitimate 
field for inter-church activity, and this work should 
be rated in the group of such duties as evangelism, 
temperance, social service, etc. In the absence 
of inter-church organizations it is customary to 
form a city organization solely for the purpose of 
operating a city institute. This organization is 
usually formed at a mass meeting including repre- 



Organization of a City Institute 31 

sentatives from church official boards, ministers, 
teachers, and officers. Christian Association leaders, 
and all other organizations having an interest in 
the religious Hfe of the city. This organization 
should, through a carefully selected nominating 
committee, choose a school board for the institute 
and then assume the same attitude toward the 
board as the pubUc does toward the board which 
operates the public schools of the city. 

§2. DETAILS OF ORGANIZATION 

I. A board of religious education. — This board 
will be charged with the general oversight of the 
city institute. It should consist of from five to 
seven members chosen after the manner indicated 
in the preceding paragraph. The following prin- 
ciples should be kept in mind in choosing the 
personnel of this board : 

a) The members should be representative citizens 
who command the confidence and respect of the 
entire city and who are accustomed to deliberate 
on important civic, industrial, and educational 
problems. Persons of large vision and keen 
insight are required to carry out a really big 
program of religious education. 

b) Each member should represent the whole city; 
the membership should be geographically well 
distributed but the members should not be selected 
by wards. 



32 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

c) Each member should represent the whole 
school; the membership should not be selected 
with a view to cultivating certain interests. Two 
dangers present themselves here. There will be 
pressure brought to include on the committee 
representatives from the Young Men's Christian 
Association, Young Women's Christian Asso- 
ciation, County Sunday School Association, 
Superintendents' Union, Ministerial Association, 
Graded Union, etc. When a member sits on the 
school board to represent the interests of one of 
these organizations he has the wrong perspective. 
A board so composed will have to arrive at its 
conclusions by compromise, and sooner or later 
the institute will run upon the rocks of controversy 
and discord. Members of these organizations 
may have positions on the institute board, but 
not as members of stcch associations, 

A number of city institutes are now suffering 
the consequences resulting from selecting board 
members to represent the various departments of 
the church school. One member would represent 
the elementary workers; another, the secondary; 
another, the adult; another, the missionary 
interest, etc. A board thus constituted cannot 
operate a successful training school. Each mem- 
ber speaks as a representative of a class, and tries 
to get all the concessions possible for that class. 
Rivalry and discord are inevitable, and a broad 



Organization of a City Institute 33 

outlook over the whole problem is not possible. 
The city training schools that have been operated 
by boards of this kind were little more than feder- 
ations of departmental training schools with no 
common interests or ideals. Such schools seldom 
complete their first year's work. The ideal board 
member represents, not a ward or a class, but the 
whole school and the whole city. 

It is the duty of this school board of reKgious 
education to select a director and faculty, adopt 
textbooks, make a course of study, prescribe 
methods of teaching, and have general charge of 
the administration of the institute. It is expected, 
of course, that in matters of educational technique 
the board will be governed by the advice of the 
educational experts whom it calls to its service 
as director and faculty members. 

The board should organize with a chairman and 
a secretary and with as many standing committees 
as are needed to carry on its work. Committees 
on finance, faculty, curriculum, buildings, and 
equipment are most essential. Meetings should 
be held monthly and on the call of the chairman. 

This institute board may develop into the city 
board of reKgious education discussed in chap. ii. 

2. Director and faculty. — The director of the 
institute is the executive officer of the board of 
religious education. With the approval of this 
board he selects the faculty, determines courses of 



34 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

study, textbooks, recitation schedules, rules and 
regulations for students, etc. The details of 
administering the rules of the board must rest 
with the director and faculty. The director of 
the institute should be ex ofl&cio chairman of the 
faculty. In addition to a consideration of the 
problems of the present institute the faculty 
should have under consideration problems of 
policy for the future. For this work special com- 
mittees may be appointed. The recommendation 
of the faculty should be conveyed to the board 
through its chairman. 

3. Advisory committee. — It is necessary to have 
someone in each church school in the city who will 
act as the medium of communication between the 
local school and the institute. Ordinarily the 
superintendent should act in this capacity. It 
happens very frequently, however, that the super- 
intendent is not in sympathy with the newer ideals 
in reHgious education, and he would be of no value 
in the promotion of teacher-training in his own 
school. The person selected for this work should 
be actively interested in teacher-training and 
willing to devote time and energy to the promo- 
tion of the institute ideals and interests. These 
local representatives should constitute an advis- 
ory committee. They should be assembled for 
instruction regarding the poKcies and purposes 
of the institute and be kept constantly inspired 



Organization of a City Institute 35 

by the institute leaders. These local representa- 
tives should of course be selected by the schools 
themselves, but the schools may be guided in the 
selection at least to the extent of the suggestion 
that those selected must be active in teacher- 
training work. 

4. General council. — The general council should 
consist of the ofl&cers of the city association under 
which the institute is operated, the board of 
religious education, the director and faculty, the 
ministers of the churches represented, and the 
advisory committee. This council should meet 
two or three times each year, preferably at the 
beginning, middle, and end of the institute year. 
The general council is a large democratic body. 
Its meetings are for free and frank discussion of the 
policies of the institute and for the projecting of 
new and improved methods of work. At these 
meetings public sentiment may be molded for 
the ideals of the institute leaders. A clear-cut, 
definite program must be prepared for each meet- 
ing. Experience has shown that the largest 
attendance is secured at a council dinner followed 
by a program of after-dinner addresses and free 
discussion. The social side of the problem must 
not be neglected. Those who are to work together 
in a great community enterprise must come to 
know each other personally. But there must be 
something more than sociability and good dinners. 



36 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

There must be serious business, and the persons 
present must take action in the form of resolutions, 
recommendations, etc. 

At these meetings also the reports of the insti- 
tute are given pubHcity and its needs clearly 
defined. The cumulative effect of properly 
planned meetings of the general council through 
a series of years will be an inner circle of repre- 
sentative men and women who are informed and 
who have active interest in the problems of reK- 
gious education of the city. A background of 
instructed leaders in the community will enable 
the city board of reKgious education to carry out 
poHcies which otherwise could not be undertaken. 

The chairman of the board of reHgious edu- 
cation should be the presiding oflSicer of the general 
council. In the interim between council meetings 
frequent letters of information, bulletins, and 
other promotion Hterature should be mailed to 
its members. If a few hundred key-people can 
be kept reading the right kind of Hterature for 
a series of months, and even years, it will produce 
a body of men and women ready to champion 
any movement that seeks to bring to their city 
the best ideas in reUgious education. 

5. Secretary-treasurer. — The director of the in- 
stitute should, with the approval of the board of 
reKgious education, appoint a secretary-treasurer 
of the institute. This officer may or may not be 



Organization of a City Institute 37 

a member of the institute faculty. It will be the 
duty of the secretary-treasurer to receive all insti- 
tute funds, and to pay out funds upon the order 
of the director countersigned by the chairman of 
the board of religious education. The secretary- 
treasurer should act as secretary of the faculty 
and also as oflSce secretary of the director. Corre- 
spondence, circular letters, and promotion liter- 
ature should go out from this ofl&ce. It will 
frequently be necessar>^ to employ stenographic 
and clerical help for this secretary, especially at 
the opening of the institute year. 

The secretary-treasurer should report to the 
board of reHgious education on all funds received 
and expended and the books should be audited 
annually by a committee selected by this board. 

§3. relation to other bodies 

I. Relation to city and county associations, — It 
must be kept clearly in mind that the city institute 
is a school of instruction with educational ideals 
and methods pecuHar to itself. It is entirely 
distinct from those organizations that seek only 
for federation and co-operation in doing a common 
task, whether this be in the promotion of common 
plans of organization through city and county 
associations or in the promotion of common 
methods of teaching through graded unions and 
other similar agencies of promotion. 



38 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

The institute is not one of the network of tubes 
through which information percolates down from 
international secretaries to the local schools. The 
county Sunday-school association must not expect 
the institute to be organized as an avenue of con- 
veying the messages of the county departmental 
secretaries (elementary, secondary, adult, mission- 
ary, temperance, etc.) to the teachers of the city. 
The county secretaries still have their work to do, 
but their specific task cannot be done through the 
institute. 

The institute must be free to introduce new 
and improved methods and standards. It is 
critical; it analyzes methods and processes; it 
establishes new standards. County and city 
associations federate the units as they are; they 
are interested in the links that bind teachers and 
schools together. The institute has Uttle interest 
in the Knks; it has for its special task the improve- 
ment of the imits. It seeks to make bigger and 
better the schools and teachers which the other 
organizations federate for co-operative efiForts. 

There is, therefore, no occasion for friction 
between the institutes and county or city Sunday- 
school associations. On the other hand, there 
are many reasons for the most cordial co-operation. 
These associations should use the machinery at 
their command to promote the training school 
from which will come workers better quaUfied to 



Organization of a City Institute 39 

carry on, not only local schools, but also all forms 
of organized work in this field. 

Occasions may arise when it is wise for city 
or county Sunday-school associations to organize 
and promote city institutes. In such cases the 
new work must be handled by a separate board 
of education with a peculiar task, and the rest of 
the county officers must recognize that the insti- 
tute was not organized to give them an oppor- 
tunity to exploit their department work. The 
work of instruction must be kept free from propa- 
ganda and promotion. A different type of people 
is required for the two tasks. Both are needed. 

2. Relation to local educational institutions, — 
Fortunate, indeed, is that institute that has the 
co-operation of a college, seminary, or other insti- 
tution of higher learning. These give it at once 
the academic atmosphere and educational ideals 
so much desired. Members of the faculties of 
these institutions should be drafted into service 
as officers and teachers in the institutes. When 
once it is made clear that strong courses are to be 
offered and that regular school work is to be carried 
on, the professors in standard colleges will gladly 
give their time to this work, and besides this they 
will be willing to dignify the work by granting 
appropriate academic credit either for entrance 
or toward the completion of regular courses as the 
work may merit. Recognition of this kind dignifies 



40 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

the work and draws to the institute the very 
highest type of students. 

But the institute must he at all times a community 
enterprise. The colleges must not operate a train- 
ing school on their own account for the benefit of 
the local churches. The moment the institute 
comes to be regarded as an adjunct to a college, 
that moment it begins to decline in interest and 
efficiency. The city schools then throw upon the 
college the whole burden of expense and the 
responsibility of promotion, and they cease to 
have a partner's interest in the business. 

It is essential that the institute be organized as 
a community enterprise and that the burden of 
responsibihty for its support always rest heavily on 
the community. The colleges co-operate as mem- 
bers of the community. Committees call upon 
faculty members and seek their co-operation as 
citizens; they ask credit for their courses as in- 
dependent schools. The college can then insist 
upon a high grade of work and adequate equip- 
ment. Through the city institutes colleges may 
offer regular and extension courses in their local 
communities and bridge the gap which often exists 
between the college and the community. To 
accomplish this end the college people must con- 
tribute their services as citizens, not as professors. 
// must he a community enterprise. The most suc- 
cessful institutes now in operation are dominated 



Organization of a City Institute 41 

by college men as citizens, not as representatives 
of the colleges. College men must be willing to 
bring about their wishes through community 
co-operation. It takes longer to reach the goal, 
but no other method will succeed. College men 
may be reHed upon to meet the community more 
than half-way in any effort that promises more 
thorough and scientific training for the religious 
teachers of the youth of our country. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE INSTITUTE FACULTY 

§ I. THE DIRECTOR 

Great care must be taken in the selection of the 
institute director. To his hands will be com- 
mitted the molding of the educational ideals of 
the churches of the city. Aside from an unim- 
peachable Christian character, the one indis- 
pensable quaUfication for this officer is professional 
training in the theory and practice of moral and 
reHgious education. The institute is to turn out 
as its product professionally trained teachers of 
reUgion. It cannot succeed in doing this work 
unless it is under the direction of one who is a pro- 
fessional educator skilled in the technique of the 
schoolmaster's art. Just as a city goes beyond its 
own gates to get its city superintendent of public 
schools, ward principals, and high-school teachers, 
it must be willing to go to the colleges and semi- 
naries for expert leadership for its rehgious schools, 
and it must be willing to pay the price of expert 
service. 

In launching an institute in a city for the first 
time the leaders may not be able to raise funds 
sufficient to secure the services of a professional 
educator who will give his whole time to this work. 

42 



The Institute Faculty 43 

They are, under such circumstances, forced to 
rely upon volunteer local leadership. The city 
superintendent of schools, some public-school 
teacher, or some college professor should be 
induced to undertake the work and carry it for- 
ward until public sentiment shall justify the 
employment of a trained specialist for the work. 

Under no circumstances should this work be 
placed in the hands of a local '^promoter," "hus- 
tler," ^'live wire," etc. It is an educational task 
that is being attempted, and it is folly to launch 
the enterprise until someone who has had pro- 
fessional training, who knows what a school is, 
and understands how to organize and operate 
a school can be secured as its executive head. 

The institute director must have clear-cut 
educational ideals and he must build his faculty 
and plan his curriculum with reference to these 
ideals. He must know the condition of the church 
schools today; and he must also know how to 
transform these schools into model schools of 
reUgion. He must not he a mere opportunist^ feeU 
ing the pulse of the people and giving them what they 
want; he must he a practical idealist, feeling the 
pulse of the people and giving them what they ought 
to have. 

When the director is once selected, the city 
board of religious education should regard him as 
the executive officer of the board. It should charge 



44 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

the director with the special work of expert edu- 
cational leadership, indorse his recommendations, 
and support him in all possible ways in the exe- 
cution of his policies. The board must not waver 
when there is a popular protest against the high 
and so-called unpractical ideals of the director. 
It is only by giving new methods a fair trial that 
their superior worth can be demonstrated, and 
the institute is just the place in which to try out 
the new methods. The director, therefore, must 
have educational training, he must have almost 
absolute authority, and he must have the unflinch- 
ing support of the board of religious education. 
And this is only asking for the director of the insti- 
tute the same consideration which is universally 
accorded to city superintendents of public schools. 

§ 2. THE selection OF THE FACULTY 

Each member of the faculty must be selected 
solely with reference to his special fitness to do the 
work of a specific class or department. The best 
management cannot build up an institute around 
a faculty that cannot teach. Personal popularity, 
social distinction, etc., may be instrumental in 
recruiting a large class, but none of these qualities 
will hold a class together. One may appeal to 
class loyalty, class organization, and the usual 
social schemes resorted to by ingenious but ineffi- 
cient teachers, but all these efforts will fail to hold 



The Institute Faculty 45 

an institute class together. Those who enrol in 
an institute are not seeking social diversion. They 
must get something really worth while out of each 
recitation, or they will cease to attend. This one 
caution needs to be italicized: Do not select a 
faculty member because of local popularity. From 
some bitter experience the writer can testify that 
whenever he has selected a faculty member for his 
following, he has been embarrassed either by the 
faculty member or by his following. Knowledge of 
the subject and ability to teach are the essential 
qualifications of a faculty member. The director 
should select a faculty that can do the work he 
wants done and then proceed to popularize his 
faculty. 

In order that there may be no occasion for 
denominational jealousy, care must be taken that 
no denomination has a preponderance of the faculty 
members, but no one must be selected for a posi- 
tion on the faculty just to give representation to 
a given denomination. 

In considering the fitness of any person for a 
place on an institute faculty the director should 
ask himself the following questions: 

1. Is he a man of unquestioned Christian 
character? Is he well educated, and will 
his culture attract the best class of people ? 

2. Is he in sympathy with the ideals which this 
institute is trying to popularize in the city ? 



46 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

3. Is he willing to sacrifice time, energy, and 
money in order to help realize these ideals ? 

4. Does he know the subject he is being asked 
to teach? Is he a student? Will he keep 
up to date in this field? Will he spend 
money on reference books and do the hard 
work necessary to make himself the city's 
authority in this field ? 

5. What has been his teaching experience and 
professional training? Does he know what 
a school is? Does he know how to judge 
good teaching ? 

6. Is he willing to do team work ? Will he take 
suggestions and welcome critical supervision ? 

In every city there is an abundance of raw 
material for its institute faculty, but it needs the 
fashioning hand of a skilful director to mold it 
into proper form. A faculty selected from a com- 
munity on the basis suggested by the six questions 
just noted will produce many surprises. Some 
popular churchmen and a few experienced leaders 
who have attained the right to be called ^'special- 
ists" by the local press will be omitted from the 
faculty roll, and some professional man little 
known to local workers, some modest teacher in 
a local church, some cultured woman from the 
literary circles of the city will be called into this 
new service. In every city there are many talented 
people who have taken no interest in the church 



The Institute Faculty 47 

schools of the past because of the prevailing 
unscientific methods who will gladly make great 
sacrifice of time and money to assist in creating 
a better type of church schools. In one city a 
banker was found who was an ardent student of 
Bible lands. He had visited the Holy Land three 
times. His home was filled with relics showing 
the manners and customs of the oriental people. 
His library contained the latest and most authori- 
tative books on the subject. He is now teaching 
the church-school teachers of his city to love the 
Holy Land as he loves it. It is his hobby. He 
will make it theirs. The institute discovered him 
to the church schools of the city. 

In another city a scientist was discovered. He 
held the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from a 
leading university. The institute director learned 
that this man had taught school, graduated from a 
state normal school, and preached his way through 
the imiversity. He makes his living as a geologist, 
but his hobby is Old Testament history. The in- 
stitute discovered this man to his city in a new 
capacity and he is now rendering invaluable service 
to the church schools of that city. 

A ward principal who had been trained as a 
kindergarten teacher was asked to undertake the 
training of the teachers in the church schools of 
her city. When she was assured that high stand- 
ards would be maintained by the institute she was 



48 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

glad to accept the work, and, true to the spirit 
of the good teacher, she traveled fifteen hundred 
miles and spent her next summer's vacation taking 
special training for her new task. 

The director must seek out such people. He 
must tell them that it is a hard task; that it will 
require time, energy, money, real sacrifice; but 
he must show them the great end to be attained. 
The bigness of the task and the great need of the 
service call out the spirit of patriotism; and the 
great souls, the really big men and women of the 
city, volunteer, without price, to render worthy 
service to the churches in the interests of the moral 
and religious training of the city's youth. 

To the foregoing qualifications one other should 
be added. If possible the faculty members should 
be those who are in some permanent way attached 
to the community. If a community is able to 
employ a faculty it can import people trained for 
the service, but when a community must rely upon 
volunteer service, which it seeks to train through 
the efforts of a salaried few, it is not best to select 
transient members of the community. There is 
much to be gained by building up a permanent 
faculty, each member of which may in time become 
an authority in his subject. 

It is seldom necessary to provide compensa- 
tion for the services of faculty members. It is 
necessary, however, to furnish them a competent 



The Institute Faculty 49 

director whose instruction is in itself a compen- 
sation, adequate teaching apparatus, Ubrary equip- 
ment, and other means of professional growth. 
The city should bear the expenses of its institute 
faculty to conventions and schools of methods 
and in similar ways recognize the obUgation of the 
city to the faithful men and women who are 
training its reUgious teachers. 

§3. THE SUPERVISION OF THE FACULTY 

The institute must stand for certain definite 
ideals. It must be one institute, and all of its 
departments must exempHfy the various phases 
of a single educational theory. Teachers from the 
different classes of the institute must not carry 
back into the teachers' meetings of the local church 
school different conceptions of educational pro- 
cedure, quoting the institute in defense of con- 
flicting methods. The institute must speak but 
one language, and it is the business of the director 
to teach this language to the faculty. Not that 
individual initiative is to be throttled, but that in- 
dividual initiative may be used in promoting 
common principles with which all agree. Those 
who do not agree with the general theory upon 
which the institute is conducted should not accept 
places on the faculty. 

The director must create an esprit de corps. 
The faculty must be molded into a single, united 



50 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

body. The spirit, ideals, and enthusiasm of the 
director must come to be the common possession 
of the whole faculty. They must all see that they 
are co-workers in a common cause. They have 
common problems, common burdens, common 
joys. They must read together, think together, 
pray together, and work together. When a 
common purpose is developed, supervision is made 
very easy. 

Certain phases of supervision are possible 
within the group. This requires a regular teach- 
ers' meeting. Besides a discussion of the details 
of organization and management which arise in 
the course of the school year, there should be 
raised for study and discussion the fundamental 
problems of educational theory and methods of 
instruction for which the institute stands. A 
well-planned series of studies of this kind will give 
the faculty common ideas and enable its members 
to defend the institute program with a growing 
intelligence. Such meetings will also create the 
spirit of study and inquiry which is essential in 
any body of teachers. The faculty may be 
divided into committees for the purpose of investi- 
gating and reporting upon assigned topics. In 
addition to the group study, the director must 
see that the up-to-date Uterature on the modern 
church school comes into the hands of his faculty. 
A common body of knowledge is the best back- 



The Institute Faculty 51 

ground for unified effort. But the director must 
go deeper. He must outline in detail the work 
of each class in the institute. This he does in con- 
ference with the instructor, as a co-worker, not 
as a dictator; but he must not hesitate to dictate 
when a vital principle is at stake, even though the 
instructor be president of the local university. 

The director must occasionally be present 
during the class work and inspect the manner of 
presentation, assignment, etc. In other words, 
the director must direct the faculty as to the con- 
tent and method of the courses offered. This 
requires tact and sympathetic interest, but it 
accompHshes two important results: (a) it pro- 
duces an efl&cient school of religion for the teachers 
of the city, and (b) it transforms a faculty of 
inexperienced people into professionally trained 
speciaHsts in their respective fields. And this 
is the highest service a director can render a 
city. 

§4. POPULARIZING THE FACULTY 

A faculty will, in the end, become popular by 
the fruits of its labor, but there is always a demand 
on the part of the prospective students to know 
something of the character and special quali- 
fication of those who occupy places on the institute 
faculty. The institute management can do much 
to bring the faculty members into the foreground 



52 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

without immodestly exploiting their virtues as 
advertising material. 

For the most part, the literature issued by the 
institute should speak of the principles, ideals, and 
methods for which the institute stands, rather 
than of the personal quahties of the faculty. 
There is, however, a way to attach the names of 
the institute faculty to the ideals for which it 
pleads. This can be done by asking the faculty 
members to visit local churches and present certain 
phases of the institute work, by securing an 
invitation for them to address township, county, 
and state conventions, and by putting them into 
touch with the leaders of their own denominational 
church-school work. The faculty member will 
grow as he studies to respond to these calls for 
service, and at the same time he will receive the 
only kind of public mention which can be legiti- 
mately used in promoting the institute. The 
director should see that proper mention be made 
in the daily papers and through other sources of 
any professional service which the faculty renders 
and of any recognition of merit which comes to it. 
All of these things assist in establishing the faculty 
in the confidence of the church people of the city. 
It is especially valuable to the general cause if 
extracts from addresses of faculty members before 
conventions can be printed, because it promotes 
the message as well as the messenger. 



The Institute Faculty 53 

Fortunate indeed is that city that has in its 
midst a group of devout men and women whose 
absorbing passion is the training of religious 
teachers for the children of the city. Every city 
has the raw material for such service. It needs 
to be discovered and trained. This is the supreme 
task of the educational expert who directs the 
city institute. 



CHAPTER V 

THE INSTITUTE CURRICULUM 

§ I. LENGTH OF THE COURSE 

At this early stage in the development of the 
city institute it is possible to present a tentative 
program only. It is to be hoped that the success 
of the present courses will justify cities in main- 
taining much more elaborate courses of instruc- 
tion in the near future. The courses outUned in 
this chapter have demonstrated by successful trial 
that they are not beyond the reach of the average 
city at the present time. 

One evening a week for recitations and another 
evening a week for lesson preparation are as much 
as can now be expected of the average teacher. 

One evening each week for a period of thirty 
weeks, beginning early in October after the open- 
ing of the public-school year, and closing in May, 
before the rush of the commencement season in 
public schools and colleges, has proved to be the 
most satisfactory length of the institute year. 

Sufl&cient experience has been acquired to make 
it clear that at least a three years' course of study 
should be outhned from the beginning. At least 
one high-grade city institute has completed a three 
years' experience with a large nimiber of graduates 

54 



The Institute Curriculum 55 

from the complete course. Students can be held 
through a three years' course if thorough work is 
offered. Many of the graduates will continue to 
attend the institute, and in time it may be advisable 
to extend the course another year. 

A three years' course w^ith thirty evenings each 
year and two recitation periods each evening gives 
one hundred and eighty periods of lectures or 
class recitations for the complete institute course. 
Surely this is not too much to ask of those who are 
preparing for the important task of teaching religion. 
There are many reasons why the entire three years' 
course should be outlined from the beginning. 

§ 2. GROUPS OF COURSES OFFERED 

Instead of outlining three years of work which 
must be taken by all students in the order specified 
in the catalogue, it is much more satisfactory to 
provide a series of courses grouped under general 
headings and require a certain number of courses 
for graduation, permitting the courses to be 
elected in the order of the student's needs or 
desires. The following groups of courses have 
proved adequate to meet the demands in one city 
of a himdred thousand inhabitants: 
Group I. Biblical: 

Old Testament History. 

Life of Christ. 

Apostolic Age. 

Biblical Geography, including manners and customs of 
the Hebrew people. 



56 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Group II. Departmental Specialization: 
Beginners (Kindergarten) . 
Primary. 
Junior. 
Intermediate. 
Senior. 
Adult. 
Home Department, including the Cradle Roll. 

Group III. Professional: 

Child Psychology and Pedagogy. 

Story-Telling. 

Supervision and Management. 

Group IV. General Lectures. 

The general lectures will vary in their nature 
and content from year to year, but they should 
be selected with two ends in view: to supplement 
and enrich the work given in the regular classes, 
and to meet current local demands. Many sub- 
jects can be given adequate attention in a few 
lectures which would otherwise require extra 
classes and additional faculty members. This 
topic will be given a fuller discussion in a later 
chapter. 

§3. ORDER OF election OF COURSES 

Students now having charge of classes in local 
church schools should elect as their first year's 
work the class which promises them the most aid 
in the task now before them. From a clearer 
insight into their present problems they may be 
led out to related principles and knowledge found 
in other courses which may be elected later. 



The Institute Curriculum 57 

Prospective teachers are urged to select their 
work in the following order: 

First year. — General lectures and one course 
elected from Group I. During this year the 
students are expected to carry the regular work of 
the Senior or adult department of their local church 
school. This arrangement provides two classes 
each week in Bible-study, one in the local church 
and one in the institute. The great value of the 
institute class will be the training in the use of 
reference books, and in acquiring methods of study 
which can be applied to other sections of the Bible 
as well as to that which chances to be covered by 
the institute class. 

Second year. — General lectures and departmental 
work. At the beginning of the second year the 
student should select the department in which he 
wishes to speciahze. All prospective teachers 
doing departmental work should become assistant 
teachers in the respective departments of their 
local church schools. The institute instructor 
should make large use of this means of combining 
theory and actual practice. 

Third year. — General lectures and some course 
selected from Group III. 

§4. REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION 

It is hoped that the International Sunday School 
Association through its Committee on Education 
vdll soon take steps toward the standardization 



S8 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

of courses oflFered in city training schools, issuing 
an International diploma for this work that 
will be distinguished from the recognition given to 
those who finish the fifty-lesson drillbook courses 
in local churches. In addition to whatever Inter- 
national recognition may come, the institute 
through its city board of religious education should 
issue its own diploma with appropriate ceremony 
to those completing the three years' course of 
study. The following conditions should be ful- 
filled by those to whom diplomas are granted: 
(i) Not fewer than 75 of the 90 general lectures 
shall be attended. (2) Not fewer than 80 regular 
class sessions shall be attended. (3) Not to exceed 
two-thirds of the work may be selected from any 
one of Groups I, II, or III. (4) The student shall 
satisfy his instructor as to his proficiency in each 
branch studied. Lessons may be made up by ex- 
amination, or by such other tests as the instructor 
may require. 

Institutes having two class periods each evening 
may make the following requirements for gradua- 
tion: 

First. — ^The student must have completed satisfactorily 
six full courses selected from the above groups. 

Second, — Not to exceed two-thirds of the work may be 
elected from any one group of courses. 

Third. — ^Lessons missed may be made up by examination 
or by such other tests as the instructors may require, but 



The Institute Curriculum 59 

no student shall be graduated who has not attended four- 
fifths of all the institute sessions for a period of three 
years. 

§ 5. ORGANIZATION BY CLASSES 

First-year students should be grouped in the 
Freshman class, and be known, for example, as 
the 'Xlass of 1917"; second-year students should 
be the Juniors, or the ^Xlass of 1916"; and the 
third-year students may be called the Seniors, or 
the "Class of 191 5." The classes should form the 
customary class organizations and develop a 
legitimate amount of class spirit. This aids in 
creating an academic atmosphere and gives a 
nucleus of loyal students with which to begin the 
campaign for each new year's enrolment. 

§ 6. AFFILIATIONS 

I. With institutions of higher learning, — The 
courses in the institute should be so thoroughly 
taught that they are worthy of recognition by 
institutions of higher learning. The academic 
standing of each course should be so safeguarded 
as to render it worthy of entrance credit in the 
standard universities. The biblical courses and 
the courses in child psychology and pedagogy may 
be offered as collegiate entrance credit, on the same 
basis as credits from standard secondary schools. 

Strong and well-estabUshed institutes may be 
able to offer courses where prerequisites, entrance 



6o City Institute for Religious Teachers 

conditions, and ability of the instructor will justify 
colleges and normal schools in oflFering advanced 
credit for the work. 

All work attempted should be thoroughly and 
honestly done. Textbooks should be standard 
treatises on the topics covered. Real study, indi- 
vidual recitations, and rigid tests should char- 
acterize the class work. The school should become 
a night school of religious education whose work 
is worthy of recognition by all standardizing 
agencies. It must not attempt work beyond its 
sphere, and it must serve the masses. But it does 
not need to lower its educational standards in order 
to serve the masses, for the ignorant and unculti- 
vated are not the ones to call into the teaching 
service of the church. The institute gathers up 
the best talent in every church and trains it for the 
specific task of teaching reUgion. 

In the Des Moines Institute a large percentage 
of the enrolment consists of college graduates, 
high-school and grade teachers, and leaders in the 
Uterary life of the city. They give dignity and 
tone to the school and they also call the best 
talent of the local churches into active service 
in the church school. The best educated people 
of the community are wiUing to attend the sessions 
of a school that maintains standards and pre- 
pares for a really professional service in the local 
church. 



The Institute Curriculum 6i 

2. With Young Men^s and Young Women's 
Christian Associations, — The Christian Associa- 
tions of most cities maintain Bible-study classes. 
It is advisable to credit the work of certain of these 
classes toward the completion of the institute 
course. Care must be taken that the courses 
so accredited are in every way equivalent to those 
offered in the institute. In some cases it will be 
found that the institute can do all the systematic 
Bible teaching required by the city Associations, 
leaving them free for devotional stimulus and 
social service. An arrangement between the 
institute and the Christian Associations will 
prevent duplication of effort and unnecessary 
competition, and will at the same time serve 
to bring many young men and women into 
touch with the church-school workers of the city 
and finally win them over to this field of 
endeavor. 

On the following page is shown a copy of a 
ticket issued to all members of the Young Men's 
Christian Association Bible classes. A similar 
ticket was issued to the Bible classes of the Young 
Women's Christian Association. Work done in 
either the institute or the Association classes would 
be credited toward the completion of courses in any 
of the co-operating schools or Associations. 

The general admission ticket issued to the 
regular institute students should have printed on 



62 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

it the privileges to which they are entitled in the 
various Associations. 

This arrangement works to the mutual ad- 
vantage of all who are promoting Bible-study 
classes in the city. The standardizing agency for 

No. Ticket of Admission Price $2 . oo 

to the Thirty General Lectures Given at the 
Des Moines Sunday School Institute 
Y.W.C.A. Bunding 
Monday Evenings at 7:30 from October 13, 1913, to May 18, 1914 
(This ticket wlQ admit the holder to the Wallace Bible 
Class at 12:30 o'clock Thursdays, and to Mr. Felling- 
ham's "Life of Christ/' or Dr. Lee's "Old Testament 
History" class at 7:00 o'clock Thursdays at the 
Y.M.C.A. Building.) 

Issued to 

Signed by 

Director 

Countersigned by 

For Young Men^s Christian Association 

THIS TICKET MUST BE PRESENTED AT EACH LECTURE AND AT 
EACH CLASS SESSION 



all such classes is the institute which determines 
the conditions of accrediting all Bible courses. 

3. With teacher-training classes in local 
churches. — The institute should encourage the 
organization of teacher-training classes in the 
local church schools. The work offered in these 
local schools should be correlated with that of the 



The Institute Curriculum 63 

institute much as high-school work is correlated 
with college curricula. The institute must pro- 
vide for advanced courses and for a type of spe- 
cialization not possible in the local churches. It 
therefore becomes the privilege of the institute to 
standardize and supervise the teacher-training 
work of the city schools. 

The institute should offer to accredit toward the 
completion of its three years' course one year's 
work done in the local church school, provided the 
following conditions are complied with by the local 
school: (i) Textbooks and teachers must be ap- 
proved by the institute. (2) The minimum equip- 
ment shall be: one set of Kent & Madsen maps 
or equivalent; adequate blackboard space; one- 
volume dictionary of the Bible (Hastings' preferred) ; 
one biblical atlas; ten volumes of reference books 
suitable to text studied, approved by the institute. 
(3) A separate classroom must be provided for the 
class. (4) The recitation period shall be forty 
minutes in duration. (5) The class shall hold at 
least 40 weekly sessions. (6) The class shall not 
be confused with the workers' conference, which 
deals with the problems of the present school. It 
shall have in mind the interest of the future school. 
(7) The entire year's work shall be devoted to one 
line of work. It is recommended that local schools 
attempt only the biblical instruction, leaving the 
professional training to the institute classes. 



64 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Classes in the Intermediate or Senior depart- 
ments of the church school may carry on such 
thorough courses of Bible instruction as to meet 
adequately the conditions of a teacher-training 
class. 

At the close of its third year's work the 
Des Moines Institute conducted a teacher- 
training campaign in co-operation with the 
County Sunday School Association. The state 
Simday-school secretaries of all the evangelical 
denominations were invited to spend a given 
week among their churches in the city. The 
Institute furnished each denominational leader 
a Ust of the names of members of his denomina- 
tion who had been in the Institute classes during 
the previous three years and who were competent 
to conduct teacher-training classes in their local 
churches. The special ^'teacher- training" week 
was launched on Monday evening at the regular 
Institute session; daily meetings of the workers 
were held for conference, and each evening from 
twenty to forty meetings were held in the various 
churches of the city, all in the interest of local 
teacher-training classes. 

It is the function of the institute to contribute 
trained leaders, standards, and ideals for local 
teacher-training work. The individual church 
school wall usually be able to conduct a two years' 
training course, but it is not probable that over 



The Institute Curriculum 65 

one year's work can be of such grade as to justify 
its being accredited toward the completion of the 
institute course. 

There are certain guiding principles which the 
institute should insist upon the local churches 
observing in their teacher-training work. These 
principles should be presented to the churches in 
such definite form that they would come to deter- 
mine the attitude of the churches toward the 
teacher-training problem. The following state- 
ment of principles was prepared by the author 
for the Commission of ReUgious Education of the 
Churches of the Disciples. It is given here to indi- 
cate the type of message which the institute should 
constantly preach to the local church schools: 

I. Teacher-training is not for the masses, — 

In public education the people as a whole are interested 
in secular education, but we select a group of people with 
certain native talents, and train them in the knowledge and 
skill and special mysteries that belong to the school- 
master's art. 

In like manner the whole church must be actively inter- 
ested in the support of a system of church schools, and from 
its ranks there must be selected those who have the qualities 
of mind and heart and character which render them specially 
fit for the teaching service of the church. These people 
should be trained in the science and art of moral and religious 
education. 

It follows that the teacher- training class in a local church 
will be a relatively small group of selected people whom the 
church is preparing for a special task. 



66 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

2. Teacher-training requires time. — 

The trained teacher must have at his command certain 
bodies of knowledge. The mind cannot master new facts 
without the element of time. It is the height of folly to 
group condensed statements of three or four bodies of 
knowledge into brief one-year courses, and expect to have 
trained teachers as a result. Only adequate, thorough- 
going statements of required subject-matter, with sufficient 
time in which the mind can organize, assimilate, and digest 
the new matter, will result in increased power or efficiency 
on the part of the teacher. 

Teaching skill is not acquired "over night." Time is 
required to secure the neural adjustments which render one 
skilful in the use of knowledge, or in the application of 
knowledge to specific ends. 

Churches desiring to do efficient work should plan care- 
fully articulated courses of training extending through at 
least two or three years of time. 

There is a classic example of a student who applied for 
entrance at a standard college. "Have you been through 
trigonometry?" asked the college examiner. "Yes," re- 
plied the youth, "but I went through it in the night and 
I didn't see much of the place." This could well be the 
answer of students who are asked to go through Old and 
New Testament, psychology, child-study, pedagogy, and 
organization and administration of religious education in 
one year of fifty lessons. With such rapid transit they 
could not be expected to "see much of the place." 

3. Teacher-training costs money. — 

The church must make large investment in religious 
education. An efficient school must have equipment. 
Trained teachers cannot be secured without price. Skilled 
instructors, expert supervision, libraries, and teaching 
apparatus must be provided. It is time the church was 



The Institute Curriculum 67 

told with no uncertain emphasis that a cheap school is 
usually an inefficient school. The church must invest in 
the training of teachers and in the equipment of the school. 

4. Teacher-training involves a knowledge of the Bible ^ the child j 
the school, and the science and art oj teaching, — 

A well-balanced course of study for a teacher-training 
class should include a thorough knowledge of the content 
of the curriculum of the church school, a course in genetic 
psychology, a knowledge of the general purpose of the school, 
and a course in methods of teaching. 

It seems impracticable to try to unite all these subjects 
in a brief introductory book. A more satisfactory basis 
would be a three-book course: one on the Bible; a second 
on the child and methods of teaching; and a third on 
organization and administration of the school in general, 
or of special departments of the school. Each of these 
books should require collateral reading from books in a 
recommended teacher-training library. It is time for the 
textbook and the library to supplant the fifty-lesson drill- 
book. 

5. Teacher-training must provide for specialization. — 

The graded curriculum and the departmental school 
have made it necessary to include in the teacher-training 
course opportunity for departmental specialization. There 
is a body of common knowledge which should be provided 
for all teachers, but the problems of the various depart- 
ments make necessary courses for workers having special 
problems. 

6. Teacher-training must provide for observation and practice 
work. — 

Trained teachers are the result of knowledge, observation, 
and practice. 

It is necessary for the training class to see good teaching 
and actually to teach under the direction of a trained critic 



68 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

teacher. An efficient teacher-training program will not 
neglect these important factors in the formation of good 
teachers. 

7. Teacher-training must provide for the present and the 
future teaching bodies. — 

The teachers of the future may be trained within the 
school by the introduction of specialized courses meeting 
on Sunday at the regular session of the school; but a differ- 
ent program of instruction is necessary for the present 
teaching body which is not free to receive instruction during 
the regular sessions of the school. An efficient program of 
teacher-training must meet the needs of both classes. 

8. Teacher-training must produce a professional spirit, — 
A trained teacher can always be identified by professional 

interest. This leads the teacher to attend conventions, 
teachers' meetings, and other means of professional growth. 
It also leads to the building up of a growing library. It is 
not too much to ask every teacher to own a standard Ameri- 
can Revised self-pronouncing Bible, a voliune on the child, 
one on methods of teaching, and one on modem methods 
of organizing and conducting church schools. To this 
nucleus the teacher should add at least one volume each 
year, bearing on the department in which he works. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM 

§ I. THE TWO PLANS 

From one and one-half to two hours one evening 
each week is the maximum time now available for 
the weekly sessions of the city training schools for 
church-school teachers and oflScers. The proper 
use of this time is one of the important problems 
of the institute director. 

Two plans have been proposed, as follows: 

First plan, — The evening is divided into two 
periods, the first a general lecture period, and the 
second a period of class recitations. The following 
schedule is usually followed : 

7:30-7:45, devotional exercises and announce- 
ments. 

7 : 45-8 : 30, general lecture. 

8:30-9:15, regular class recitations. 

Second plan, — Two recitation periods are held 
each evening with a fifteen-minute period of devo- 
tions between the class periods. One group of 
students will come for the first recitation period, 
remain for the devotional period, and then return 
home; a second group will come in time for the 
devotional period and remain for the second class 
period. By this arrangement all the students are 

69 



^o City Institute for Religious Teachers 

together each evening at the period of devo- 
tional exercises and announcements. The evening 
schedule would be as follows : 

7:30-8:15, first recitation period. 

8:15-8:30, devotional exercises and announce- 
ments. 

8:30-9:15, second recitation period. 

This plan enables some students to carry two 
regular classes. It would be possible also to use 
one of the recitation periods every fourth week for 
a general lecture to all students, letting the recita- 
tions scheduled for that period occur but three 
times each month. This method is most adaptable 
to communities in which it is difficult to secure a 
desirable course of lectures for the first period. 

The first plan is by far the more desirable for 
the first year's work, and if the talent is available 
for the general lectures it will usually prove to be 
the best plan for any year's work. 

General features, — The atmosphere of the insti- 
tute must be academic. The gongs must sound 
on schedule time, classes must pass promptly to 
their places, the roll must be called, and everything 
must move like clockwork. Every detail of the 
program must be planned in advance, including 
songs, Scripture lesson, etc. There must be 
nothing hurried or rushed, but everything must be 
done systematically, and there must be the thrill 
of Hfe through the whole program. 



The Weekly Program 71 

§ 2. general lectures 
I. Advantages. — There are two great values in 
the general lectures. First, there is the oppor- 
timity to create group-consciousness. The stu- 
dents come to feel the mass of the movement in a 
way that would not be possible if they met only 
in small classes. Secondly, there is an opportunity 
to give to the whole group of students certain 
bodies of knowledge and to impart certain common 
points of view that will issue in united effort for a 
common standard. The group thinks through 
the same problems together under the guidance 
of a skilful leader. Its members are sent to the same 
reference books, they come to quote the same 
authorities, and presently they are voting together 
for the same poUcies for the city's religious schools. 
Those who plan the general lectures have a very 
great responsibility. The themes should be those 
of common interest. There are certain things 
which should be the common possession of all who 
are to co-operate in a church school. No one can 
do his special work well unless he has the back- 
ground of a broad general knowledge. The lecture 
period should create the attitude, the point of view, 
the sense of the common problem, etc., and the class 
period should set students at work in specialized 
groups preparing to solve specific problems. 

2. Lecture talent. — The professional educator 
who has been called as the institute director should 



72 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

be expected to give many of these lectures. He 
is creating a general educational policy for the 
schools of the city, and the students should 
study through with him the facts and arguments 
which underlie his theory. His point of view 
should come to be theirs. In addition to the 
director, there may be members of the faculty 
who can give courses of lectures on themes of 
general interest. 

No one should be given opportunity to address 
the institute unless his topic is germane to the 
general theme under consideration. Preachers, 
statesmen, and popular leaders should be denied 
the privilege of addressing the institute unless the 
director is assured that they have a special message 
prepared for the institute itself. A sermon, lec- 
ture, or essay, worked over for the occasion, is 
not the sort of material to feed institute students. 
Returned missionaries, temperance enthusiasts, 
social service orators, and personal purity agitators 
may have vital messages, but they should not be 
permitted to speak before the city institute. The 
institute lecture period is for another purpose, and 
only themes relating to reHgious education in some 
of its phases should be discussed, and these themes 
should be handled by those specially qualified to 
discuss them. As a rule it is better to have one 
man give a series of lectures on a general theme 
than to have several men discuss various phases 



The Weekly Program 73 

of the general theme. There is more likely to be 
unity and thoroughness in the presentation. 

To insure the best results there should be a 
textbook purchased by the pupils covering the 
general field of each course of lectures. The 
speaker should take a few minutes each evening 
for questions and discussion, and at the end of the 
course an examination should be given covering 
the text and lectures. 

3. Lecture topics. — For the purpose of leading 
the students into the literature of the modem 
church school, a series of lectures might be given 
on the general theme: ^^The Church School in 
History and Prophecy." The following subtopics 
are suggested: 
First lecture, — Christian Education from the Apostolic Age 

to St. Augustine. 
Second lecture. — From St. Augustine to Martin Luther. 
Third lecture. — From Martin Luther to Robert Raikes. 
Fourth lecture. — From Robert Raikes to the Founding of 

the American Simday School Union. 
Fifth lecture. — From 1824 to 1872, the Birth of the Inter- 
national Sunday School Association. 
Sixth lecture. — From 1872 to 1903, the Birth of the Religious 

Education Association. 
Seventh lecture. — Present Problems in the Field of Religious 
Education (including the Graded Church School, 
Teacher-Training, etc.). 

Note: — For the above seven lectures the students should 
purchase Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-School, Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. 60 cents. 



74 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Eighth lecture. — ^A Standard Church School (see chap, ii 
of this volume for outline) . 

Ninth lecture, — ^The Organization of the Church Schools 
of Tomorrow. (Students should be given reprints 
of the Religious Education Association Commission 
report on The Correlation of the Educational Agencies 
of the Local Church, published by the Religious Educa- 
tion Association, 332 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, 
Illinois, 4 cents.) 

Tenth lecture, — Teacher-Training Standards of Tomorrow. 
(See Religious Education, December, 19 14.) 

Eleventh lecture. — ^The Grading of Expressional Activities 
of the Growing Child. (See W. N. Hutchins, Graded 
Social Service for the Sunday School, The University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 75 cents.) 

Twelfth lecture. — ^The Church House — a Temple and a 
School. (See H. F. Evans, The Sunday-School Building 
and Its Equipment, The University of Chicago Press, 
Chicago, Illinois, 75 cents.) 

Thirteenth lecture. — ^America's Educational Problem and 
the Solutions Suggested by the North Dakota Plan, 
the Wesley College Plan, the Greeley Plan, the Gary 
Plan, and the Des Moines Plan. (See current litera- 
ture on religious education, especially recent numbers 
of Religious Education and the Biblical World.) 

The teachers of a city need to be made familiar 
with the organization, purpose, and results of 
present-day educational agencies in this field. 
The Religious Education Association, the Inter- 
national Sunday School Association, the American 
Sunday School Union, the Sunday School Council 
of Evangelical Denominations, the Commission 



The Weekly Program 75 

of Religious Education of the Federal Council 
of the Churches of Christ in America, and the 
educational commission of the different religious 
denominations should become familiar to the 
institute students. They should keep in touch 
with current progress, be advised of conventions, 
and made famihar with significant reports. This 
can be done at the general lecture period and by 
including in the current notices brief mention of 
significant events in the larger rehgious world. 

There is much need for a general dissemination 
of information on the graded church school. This 
study might be introduced by a series of lectures 
on the general theme of ^^ God's Unfolding Child.'' 
The first half of Weigle's The Pupil and the Teacher 
could be studied by the school during this series. 
Following these lectures there should be a com- 
panion series showing how the graded curriculum 
fits the graded child. Such a text as Meyer's 
The Graded Sunday School in Principle and Prac- 
tice would be appropriate for class study during 
these lectures. Series of lectures on biblical themes 
may be given with profit, appropriate texts being 
selected for study. This is not the place for a 
series of sermons. 

As a background for the teaching of missions 
there could well be given a series of lectures on 
'^The Great ReHgions of the World." These 
lectures should be given by some student who 



76 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

has gone into the deeper philosophies of oriental 
religions, rather than by returned missionaries 
whose message will usually be evangelistic and 
hortative. The recent book issued by Harper 
entitled Great Religions of the World would serve 
as a good basis for a serious study of the history of 
religions. 

A series of illustrated lectures might be given 
for the purpose of showing the use of art in religious 
education. 

The problem of music for the church school 
might well be studied for a series of evenings. . 

It has been found helpful to have an occasional 
"Question Box" evening at which time questions 
bearing on any phase of the church school may be 
answered by the director or the faculty members. 
Questions may also be received from the audience 
and rapid-fire discussion encouraged, all directed 
by a skilful leader. 

The foregoing suggestions will serve to indicate 
how rich is the field in appropriate material for 
the lecture hour. 

§3. the recitation period 

Following the general lecture the students should 
pass to their respective recitation rooms. The 
number of classes maintained by the institute will 
depend upon the size of the city, the instructors 
available, the general demand, etc. But all the 



The Weekly Program 77 

classes maintained should do serious school work. 
The order of class exercises should be as follows: 

Brief opening prayer. 
Roll-call by secretary of class. 
Class announcements. 
Lfesson period. 
Definite lesson assignment. 
Closing prayer. 

In view of the experience of many city institutes 
it is necessary to emphasize the authority of the 
institute instructors within the classroom. They 
are not merely leaders of conferences; they are 
teachers, who know more than the students. A 
good teacher will have both conference and 
exchange of opinion, but there will be something 
more than this to each recitation, if the class is 
to be a real success. The teacher will draw out 
the experiences of the class for the purpose of 
setting new truths into this background. Class 
conferences will cease to be interesting when the 
students have tired of one another's oft-repeated 
experiences. Warming up the old knowledge, 
giving it no new direction or interpretation, and 
adding nothing new to it is as futile as a black- 
smith's repeatedly heating up an iron but never 
welding on a new bar. 

The practice, taken over from some graded 
unions, of placing the class under a committee 
which assigns a new teacher for each evening is 



78 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

also out of harmony with the plans of an efficient 
institute. In an institute the teacher must teach, 
exactly as a professor teaches in the college class- 
room. 

§4. THE OPENING SESSION 

This chapter may well be concluded with the 
following letter written by an institute director 
to each member of his faculty following a faculty 
meeting at which the general program of the open- 
ing session of the institute season had been 
arranged: 

Mr, Harry Goodrich 

Care of Y.M.C.A . Building 
Des MoineSy Iowa: 

Dear Friend: In order that there may be a common 
miderstanding regarding the action of the faculty at the 
meeting Friday afternoon, I am sending this letter to all 
faculty members. 

I. Monday evening program, — The following program 
will be carried out Monday evening, October 13 : 

a) All members of the faculty will assemble on the plat- 
form promptly at 7:30 o'clock. 

b) Opening song: Miss Carton, pianist; Miss Malone, 
song leader. 

c) Prayer: probably by Rev. A. A. Ebersole, director 
of religious education, Central Union Church, Honolulu, 
Hawaii. 

d) Song. 

e) Address by Dr. Henry F. Cope, general secretary of 
the Religious Education Association, Chicago. 

/) Song. 



The Weekly Program 79 

g) Introduction of members of faculty. (No speeches 
will be expected.) 

h) Statement of rules, courses of study, and directions 
as to enrolling. 

i) Song (one verse). 

j) Prayer. 

k) All students will pass directly to classrooms for 
enrolment, consultation with instructors, and assignment 
of lessons. In some classes it will be impossible to assign 
lessons because of the absence of textbooks, but the students 
may be given a brief outline of the courses, and such other 
information as instructors may wish to give. 

Faculty members will act as enrolling secretaries on 
this first evening. Before accepting enrolling card, see 
that all information requested on the card is properly 
recorded. In case of cash payment, sign the secretary's 
name and your own initials to the receipt, detach same and 
give to student. 

2. Gong signals. — The following signals will be observed 
at all sessions beginning October 20: 

7 •* 30j gong for opening of general lecture. 

8:20, " " closing of general lecture. 

8:30, " " beginning of class recitations. 

9:12, " ^' closing of class recitations. 
This gOQg sounds three minutes before closing time, and all 
instructors are requested to dismiss promptly at 9 : 15 o'clock. 

3. Tickets of admission. — Admission to all general lec- 
tures will be by ticket. Visitors' tickets may be secured 
upon request from the secretary, registrar, or director. 
Inclosed find your admission ticket, which is issued with 
the compliments of the Committee on Religious Education 
of the Inter-Church Council. 

4. Class books. — Class books will be furnished to the 
instructors. An accurate record of attendance is desired. 



8o City Institute for Religious Teachers 

5. Faculty meetings. — Monthly faculty meetings will be 
held at the Y.W.C.A. Building at 6:30 o^clock. It is 
thought that many of the faculty will find it convenient 
to dine together at 6:30. Informal discussion could be 
carried on during the meal, and a brief business session 
after the meal would meet all our needs. Notices will be 
issued before each meeting. 

6. General nature of class work. — New members of the 
faculty are reminded that this is a school, not a convention. 
The pupils are expected to study, recite, and pass examina- 
tions, just as they would in any other school of instruction. 
It is, however, a school in which the religious ideals must 
be stressed. The opening exercises of the first period will 
throw an atmosphere of worship into the program, but the 
class periods are also expected to close with prayer by the 
class teacher or some member of the class. Some instruct- 
ors open and close the class period with prayer. It is, 
however, the rule of the institute that all class periods 
must be closed by prayer. 

7. Distinguishing features of the Des Moines Sun- 
day School Institute. — ^The two essential features of the 
Des Moines Institute are: 

a) A unified educational program, making all courses 
harmonize with an educational policy which the entire 
faculty is expected to promote. This means unification, 
supervision, direction of all work by the director and Com- 
mittee on Religious Education. 

b) A city system of religious education which the faculty 
and Sunday-school workers of the city are attempting to 
perfect (see pp. 8 and 12 of Institute Announcement for this 
year). General lectures, special lectures, literature dis- 
tributed, and bulletins issued must all lead to the creating 
of a community ideal which will give us common concep- 
tions and unity of purpose, so that we may lead the city 



The Weekly Program 8i 

of Des Moines to establish a system of religious education 
which will adequately meet the religious needs of the 
childhood of the city. 

8. Co-workers. — As a faculty we must be co-workers in 
everything which pertains to the religious welfare of the 
children of the city. We must lead the religious workers 
of the city to great things. I must have your assistance. 
I do not know what I should have done during the past 
two years if I had not had the sympathetic and loyal 
co-operation of a faithful and able faculty. It is our 
Institute, and together we must make it a great Institute. 

With the prayer that the richest blessings of the Father 
may attend us as we toil together at our common task, 
I am 

Very truly yours, 

Director 



CHAPTER VII 

INSTITUTE FINANCE 

§1. EXPENSES 

The following items may be listed as legitimate 
items of institute expenses: 

1. Salary of director, — An adequate salary 
should be provided for a professionally trained 
director. Most institutes will be launched by 
volunteer leadership. A city superintendent of 
public schools or a professor of religious education 
in a local college will be willing to contribute pro- 
fessional leadership for a few years, but eventually 
the position will demand the full time of an edu- 
cational expert for whom a salary will need to be 
provided. 

2. Printing, — This is no small item. It should 
include institute announcements, courses of study, 
promotion Uterature, report cards, enrolment 
cards, admission tickets, diplomas, circular let- 
ters, etc. 

3. Stenographic assistance, — The director should 
be freed from clerical work. A competent ste- 
nographer is indispensable, especially during the 
opening days of the institute year. 

4. Postage, — Money invested in postage usually 
brings satisfactory returns. The follow-up letter 

82 



Institute Finance 83 

plan, so productive of returns in the business world, 
should be made use of in the promotion of a city 
institute. 

5. Equipment. — It is seldom possible to find 
a building adequately equipped for the specific 
work of the institute. Funds will be needed for 
blackboards, crayon, erasers, maps, sand table, 
and a working library for each class in the institute. 
Each institute instructor should feel that he has 
adequate equipment for eflfective work. 

6. RentaL — It frequently happens that suit- 
able quarters for the institute may be secured 
without cost. Local Young Men's and Young 
Women's Christian Associations usually solicit 
the privilege of providing a home for the institute. 
It is an asset to one of these Associations to have 
several hundred of the best church people of the 
city brought into close contact with the Asso- 
ciation and its work. The Association becomes 
a center for teachers' meetings and similar gather- 
ings. Associations having had experience report 
that the institutes greatly increase their cafe- 
teria business, create a friendly feeling between 
the Associations and the churches of the city, 
and make membership and financial campaigns 
easier. 

7. Promotion literature. — The creation of a com- 
mon city program of religious education makes 
necessary the circulation of certain promotion 



84 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

literature. Some of this Kterature may be secured 
without cost from the denominational publishing 
houses. Other material will need to be printed 
or purchased. It is a serious mistake not to pro- 
vide for this item of expense in the institute 
budget. 

8. Special lectures, — A few experts of more than 
local reputation should be brought in each year 
at the expense of the institute. These lecturers 
should not be asked to come for their expenses. 
The opening and closing sessions of the institute 
year are desirable occasions for the presence of 
such speakers. 

9. Professional development of the faculty. — A 
community which asks gratuitous service from 
its institute faculty should be more than willing 
to bear the expense of convention attendance, 
lectureship privileges, and other means of pro- 
fessional growth of all members of the faculty. 
The institute could well afford to pay the member- 
ship fee of each of its instructors in the Religious 
Education Association, the American Institute 
of Sacred Literature, and similar agencies of 
professional growth. 

§2. SOURCES OF REVENUE 

Methods of financing city institutes will vary 
with different localities and with the different 
types of local organization. The following sources 



Institute Finance 85 

of revenue have been found satisfactory by insti- 
tutes that have been successfuly financed. 

1. Inter-church budget. — Institutes organized as 
a regular feature of the inter-church work of a city 
should have their expenses provided for in the 
regular inter-church budget. This budget should 
be raised by a finance committee either through 
direct assessment on the churches or by personal 
solicitation from church members. It is very 
desirable that one budget cover all inter-church 
activities. 

2. Personal subscription. — In the absence of an 
inter-church organization competent and willing, 
the finance committee of the city board of reli- 
gious education may raise the institute budget 
by personal subscriptions from friends of the cause 
of reUgious education throughout the city. The 
city may be divided into districts, and teams of 
instructed soUcitors may make a simultaneous 
campaign for subscriptions. With proper man- 
agement a few days will be adequate to finance 
the year's institute. Some cities find it desirable 
to sell *^ sustaining memberships" in the city in- 
stitute association rather than to ask for direct 
donations. 

3. Tuition fees. — A tuition fee of from one to 
three dollars should be charged. The larger fee 
is usually most satisfactory. Students assume 
a different attitude toward their courses when 



86 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

they have paid a tmtion fee. After the initial 
equipment of an institute the tuition fees may be 
expected to meet all expenses of the institute 
except the director's salary. 

4. Scholarships, — Another method of raising 
funds is through the sale of scholarships. Churches 
may agree to take scholarships for their teachers 
and pay for the same out of the church treasury. 
Men who would not make a direct contribution 
to the institute fund will often gladly buy a 
scholarship for some worthy teacher. 

5. Benefit programs. — For the purpose of raising 
special funds for a Kbrary, for equipment, etc., 
the institute may occasionally find it profitable 
to conduct benefit programs. The leading musi- 
cians, readers, and entertainers in the city will 
gladly donate their services, and the students will 
be able to sell tickets to their friends for the even- 
ing's entertainment. Care must be taken to have 
none but high-class numbers on a benefit pro- 
gram of this kind. Anything which smacks of 
the cheap vaudeville show will reflect upon the 
character and ideals of the institute itself. 

6. Educational exhibits, — The purpose of an 
exhibit of rehgious education is primarily edu- 
cational. It frequently happens that public 
interest in these exhibits is enhanced by a small 
admission fee. The lectures given in connection 
with the exhibits add to their educational value 



Institute Finance 87 

and make them in every way worthy of the admis- 
sion fee charged. One institute held a six days' 
exhibit with lectures in the afternoons and even- 
ings. Over eleven hundred admission fees of ten 
cents each were received. The exhibit brought 
the ideals of the institute to the attention of 
hundreds of people who had not previously been 
interested. 

7. Public collection. — Small institutes needing 
but a limited amount of funds are sometimes 
financed at a mass meeting of the churches at 
which the needs of the institute have been pre- 
sented. Some pastor or lay leader will receive 
pledges from the audience and a cash offering will 
be collected. From one hundred to two hundred 
dollars may be raised by this method by a skilful 
handling of a good audience. This method is the 
least satisfactory means of securing institute fimds, 
but there are times when it should be used. 

The problem of financing a city institute grows 
easier with the passing years. Those who com- 
plete the institute courses are invariably loyal 
supporters, and churches, seeing the increased 
efl&ciency of the teachers who have attended the 
institute, are the more ready to increase their 
offering for its support. A growing income from 
tuition and an increased number of "sustaining 
members" soon make the raising of the annual 
budget a comparatively easy matter. It should 



88 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

be added that all sustaining members and all who 
contribute in any way to the support of the insti- 
tute should receive the promotion literature issued 
by the institute in order that their interest in the 
cause and their knowledge of the whole movement 
for better things in religious education may be 
constantly increased. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE CAMPAIGN FOR STUDENTS 
§ I. THE PERIOD OF INFORJIATION AND AGITATION 

Each city institute has at its beginning a small 
nucleus of interested persons. These initial pro- 
moters must definitely plan a program of informa- 
tion and agitation at the culmination of which 
the institute is to be launched. Meetings of small 
groups must be held for the intensive study of the 
institute and its problems, and public meetings 
must be held to popularize the plan. Promotion 
literature must be put into the hands of key- 
people. The idea must be allowed to grow nat- 
urally, until it seems to break out simultaneously 
in many quarters of the city. It will then be every- 
body's idea, and it will be easy to convert this 
general interest into a real community enterprise. 

After the board of religious education has been 
secured, the director and faculty selected, and the 
complete announcements of the institute prepared 
for distribution, there comes an important period 
in which pubUc favor must be aroused and students 
must be secured. 

§ 2. THE INITIAL ENROLMENT 

Much depends upon the right kind of pub- 
licity. In addition to general publicity, such as 

89 



90 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

newspaper notices, general announcements in the 
churches of the city, and a wide distribution of the 
institute literature, there must be a large amount 
of definite, specific, and personal advertising. 
The crime of standing before a class of children 
unprepared must be impressed upon every teacher 
in the city. It must be a personal appeal. The 
whole city must be made to feel that teacher- 
training is serious business; that upon its success 
depends the success of the church and of Chris- 
tianity. The appeal in every piece of literature 
issued, in every letter written, and in every speech 
made must involve the serious side of the problem 
and call out the spirit of patriotism. No silly 
cartoons or ^^ catchy" posters having the '^booster, 
whoop, and hurrah" coloring should be issued. 
The announcements should be as dignified as the 
catalogues of standard colleges, the Hterature 
should all be high class, and the appeal should be 
such as to reach the earnest, cultivated, thinking 
people of the city. Having prepared a strong, 
educational program, the management must not 
permit it to be misrepresented by cheap, booster, 
promotion literature. Let everything suggest the 
thoroughgoing, serious task which the institute 
proposes to perform for the churches of the city. 

The Sunday preceding the opening session of 
the institute should be designated '^Teacher- 
Training Sunday" for the city, and an effort 



The Campaign for Students 91 

should be made to fix the attention of the city for 
this one day on the religious education of children. 
The ministers of the city should be asked to discuss 
this theme in their morning sermons, and special 
representatives should be sent to the church 
schools of the city on that morning to annoimce 
the institute and to urge teachers and officers 
to enrol. In the afternoon of ^^Teacher-Training 
Sunday'' a mass meeting of all persons interested 
in reUgious education should be held. This meet- 
ing should be addressed by a carefully selected 
speaker from another city. 

On Friday evening preceding "Teacher-Training 
Sunday" there should be held a meeting of the 
institute council. Three things should be accom- 
pHshed at this meeting: (i) the facts regarding 
faculty, curriculum, enrolment, etc., should be 
clearly set forth; (2) detailed plans should be 
made for securing enrolment from the various 
schools, and (3) an enthusiasm should be created 
in the cause of religious education which will lead 
to consecrated service in the building up of the 
institute. 

The first session of the institute should be very 
carefully planned. The opening lecture should 
be a call to sacrifice and service for the sake of the 
child Hfe of the city. The director should intro- 
duce the faculty, and review the conditions of 
enrolment, the courses of study offered, and the 



g2 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

ideals and purposes of the institute. Following 
this introductory service the audience should be 
dismissed to the separate classrooms for enrolment 
and lesson assignment. The enrolment card 
should call for the following data: name of student; 
address; telephone number; church (name of 
individual congregation); position in church 
school; courses elected in institute (transfers per- 
mitted with the approval of the director) . 

Enrolment should be for the year's work rather 
than for a semester or shorter session. Instead 
of presenting the attraction of short courses, inter- 
esting and entertaining sessions, and certificates 
of graduation for a brief term's work, the pro- 
moters should advocate long courses, hard work, 
real study, and the fatiguing discipline that gives 
increased skill and power. Little or nothing 
should be said about diplomas; much should be 
said about the need of more skilful workers. The 
institute that is built up with short-course recruits 
will have low standards of work and the faculty 
will be constantly tempted to be spectacular and 
dramatic in order to hold its enrolment. The 
enrolment that responds to the call for hard study, 
standard textbooks, and long courses will represent 
the soHd, cultured element in the community, and 
with such students a type of work is possible which 
will commend the institute to the favor of an 
increasing number of strong men and women. 



The Campaign for Students 93 

Every institute that hopes to survive must 
expect to slough off each year a group of indolent, 
self-centered, and sentimental convention trotters, 
who join the institute for a new thrill, but who 
drop its courses automatically the moment real, 
hard study is exacted. The institute can afford 
to lose such people. The time has come when the 
church must cease to compliment consecrated 
ignorance and demand trained intelligence. 

For two or three weeks prior to the opening of 
the institute the director and the chairman of 
the board of religious education should conduct 
a vigorous follow-up correspondence campaign 
for students. Letters should go to pastors, super- 
intendents, prospective students, former students, 
etc. The nature of the letters will depend upon 
local conditions. A great deal of individual 
correspondence should supplement circular letters. 
Care should be taken that only high-class stationery 
and the very best stenographic work go out from 
the institute office. Cheap, slovenly correspond- 
ence will never attract desirable patronage. The 
following letters were used with satisfactory 
results in promoting the third annual enrolment 
of a city institute. 

1. [To all pastors in the city] 

September 27, 1913 
Dear Brother: 

Under another cover we are sending you a copy of the 
Third Annual Announcement of the Des Moines Sunday 



94 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

School Institute. With this announcement we are inclosing 
a report on "The Church School" and some other litera- 
ture which set forth the standards and ideals which are to 
be stressed by the Des Moines Sunday-school workers 
during the coming year. We hope you can find time to 
give this literature a careful reading. 

You will note from the announcement that the Institute 
will open Monday evening, October 13. Sunday, October 
12, has been designated by the Committee as "Teacher- 
Training Sunday," and the ministers are requested to stress 
the work of religious education in the morning service of 
that day. We covet your co-operation, not only on 
Teacher-Training Sunday, but throughout the entire year. 

We are endeavoring to give Des Moines a Night School 
of Religious Education which shall adequately train reli- 
gious teachers for our church schools. Des Moines does not 
now appreciate the extent of the sacrifice which has been 
made by a few men and women who are giving their time, 
talent, and meager income that the children of the city 
shall have competent instruction in the Word of God. 
Their work should not fail because of a lack of co-operation 
of the religious agencies of the city. The ministers of the 
city have been a mighty factor in the success of the Institute 
in the past, and we begin the third year's work confident 
that we shall have the enthusiastic support of every minister 
in the city. 

Through you the Conmaittee desires to inform the church 
people of the city of the opportunities offered by the Sunday 
School Institute. 

With appreciation for your co-operation in past years, 
we are y^^^ truly yours, 

Committee of Religious Education 
OF the Inter-Church Council 

per 

Chairman 



The Campaign for Students 95 

2. [To all superintendents] 
Dear Friend: 

The Des Moines Sunday School Institute is a vital part 
of Des Moines's religious life. It is conducted under the 
direction of the Inter-Church Council. You are familiar 
with the work of the Institute for the past two years. 
Under another cover we are today sending you the an- 
nouncement of next year's work. Please find time to give 
it a very close reading. 

As a Sunday-school superintendent you are vitally 
concerned with the success of the Institute. Your greatest 
need is trained workers. The Institute faculty will train your 
workers if you will see that they are enrolled in our classes. 

We especially urge you to select capable young men 
and women from seventeen to twenty-five years of age and 
place them in our training classes. You can assist us by 
giving publicity to the Institute. In due time we shall 
send you copies of the Institute Announcement for distri- 
bution. On p. 23 you will note the announcement of the 
Superintendents' Department under the leadership of 
Professor F. E. Goodell. We covet your fullest co-operation 
in the work of this class. 

We also wish you to note the paragraph on p. 12, setting 
forth the nature of the Institute Council. By virtue of 
your position you are a member of this Council. The first 
meeting of the Council will be held at the Y.M.C.A. Build- 
ing, Friday evening, October 10. Please be present if it 
is at all possible. We need you. 

Thanking you for your co-operation in the past, and 
soliciting your continued support, we are 
Very truly yours. 

Committee of Religious Education 
OF Inter-Church Council 

per 

Chairman 



96 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

3. [To all former sttcdents] 
Dear Friend: 

Under another cover we are sending you a copy of the 
Third Annual Announcement of the Des Moines Sunday 
School Institute. We are very anxious that all former 
students enrol as early as possible in order that we may 
have books ordered and all supplies ready for the opening 
session. 

The Committee will appreciate it if you will send in the 
enrolment card at once. If not convenient to send cash 
with the enrolment, send the card now and pay the fee 
later. 

We know you will assist in securing a large enrolment 
this year. Read the announcement carefully in order that 
you may be fully informed. If you need extra copies for 
distribution among prospective students, please notify the 
Director at once. In talking of the Institute, please keep 
in mind the following points: 

1. The Institute is more than an old-fashioned teachers 
meeting. // is a night college of religious education. . Its 
courses are as cultural as those offered in any high-grade 
training school. Its diploma will be a certificate of 
recognition of which anyone may justly be proud. 

2. Des Moines is doing pioneer work in religious edu- 
cation. Its Sunday-school workers are establishing a city 
system of religious education on a plane never before 
attempted by any American city. If we succeed we will 
have made a definite contribution to the Sunday-school 
work of the country. 

3. The Inter-Church Council is behind the Institute. 
It is a city institution and every church member in Des 
Moines should give it his enthusiastic support. 

If we can co-operate with you in any way in securing 
students from your church, please advise us. 



The Campaign for Students 97 

Looking forward to a great year's work together. 

we are 

Very truly yours, 

Committee of Religious Education 
OF Inter-Church Council 

per 

Chairman 
4. [To the Senior class] 

September, 1913 
Dear Friend: 

No one in Des Moines can be more interested in the 
success of the Des Moines Sunday School Institute than 
those who have the honor of being members of its first 
Senior class. The records of the Institute show that you 
have satisfactorily completed the first two years' work and 
that you are entitled to all the privileges of Senior standing. 

I feel sure that in years to come you will take great pride 
in holding one of the first diplomas issued by the Institute. 
I think we should impress upon everyone that we are 
establishing in Des Moines a night college of religious edu- 
cationy which is to take rank among the leading training 
schools of the country. When we are naming the edu- 
cational institutions of Des Moines we must not fail to 
include the Des Moines Sunday School Institute. The 
work we are doing is a very high grade of imiversity exten- 
sion work, and we are justly entitled to superior academic 
rating. We are maintaining standards, and your diploma 
will be a document which will always reflect honor upon you. 

But the Institute must live; and it can be kept alive 
only by the efforts of its friends. We are anxious that 
every member of the Senior class shall become active in 
a campaign to secure enrolments for the Institute. The 
Religious Education Committee of the Inter-Church 
Council is requesting the ofl&cers of the Senior class to call 
a meeting of the class to organize for such a campaign. 



98 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

We urge you to respond to this call when it comes, in the 
interest of a great religious training school for Des Moines. 
Congratulating you upon attaining Senior standing in 
the Institute and thanking you in advance for your efforts 
to promote the enrolment for the coming year, I am 

Very truly yours, 



Director 

From each church a list of prospective teachers 
was secured. Pastors, superintendents, and church 
ofl&cers were asked to urge these young people 
personally to prepare for work in the church school. 
The Institute director wrote a series of letters 
to each person recommended by the local schools. 
The initial letter follows: 

5. [To prospective sttcdents] 

November i, 191 2 
Miss May Merritt 
lyog 7th St,, City: 

Dear Miss Merritt: Dr. Kirbye and the Plymouth 
Sxmday-School Board have selected you as one of fifteen 
persons from the congregation whom they believe to have 
the peculiar graces of mind and heart which would fit 
them to become superior Sunday-school teachers. 

I want to congratulate you upon the high compliment 
which your church has paid you. To be selected as one 
worthy to be imitated by the childhood of the congregation 
is the highest honor which could come to a member of any 
church. 

With the "gift of teaching" goes the grave responsi- 
bility of developing and using the God-given capacity. 
You have been called to the teaching service of the church, 



I 



\ 



The Campaign for Students 99 

and God will expect you to give an account of the way 
in which you use the teaching talents he has given you. 

Teaching in the church is an honorable and dignified 
position. You could not place your life where it would 
count for more in the world than it will in the teaching- 
service of the church. 

Your pastor speaks in such high terms of you that I am 
anxious that you enter the classes in our Institute and pre- 
pare to accept the call that has come to you to teach in 
the Sunday school. Plymouth Church will pay your 
enrolment fee, and, I believe, meet some other incidental 
expenses. 

I am sending you an announcement of the Institute. 
Read it over, consult with Dr. Kirbye, and then enrol in the 
class which seems to be most nearly suited to your needs. 

We shall welcome you at the Institute next Monday 
night. 

Again congratulating you upon the recognition you 
have received from Plymouth Church, and extending you 
a cordial invitation to join our Institute classes, I am 

Yours very truly, 



Director 
§3. THE FOLLOW-UP CAMPAIGN 

Immediately following the first session of the 
institute the enrolment should be tabulated by 
churches and by classes. A vigorous campaign 
should be prosecuted during the week and the same 
process be repeated after each of the first three or 
four sessions. Each pastor and superintendent 
should be notified what teachers of their own have 
enrolled, and in what classes they have registered. 



loo City Institute for Religious Teachers 

They should then be urged to secure representa- 
tives in other departments of the institute. This 
will call for individual letters. To the pastors 
and superintendents whose schools are not repre- 
sented in the initial enrolment, the following 
letter would be appropriate, accompanied by a 
printed report showing the enrolment by churches 
and classes: 

November 17, 191 1 
My dear Sir: 

Our institute opened last Monday night with 85 pupils, 
representing 27 Sunday schools. Nearly two-thirds of the 
Sunday schools of Des Moines were not represented in our 
classes. 

We want our Institute to be of the largest possible 
service to the Sunday schools of Des Moines, but we can 
be of no service to a school whose teachers and officers are 
not enrolled in our Institute. 

Your school was among the number with no representa- 
tive in our classes. We are sure we can be of great help 
to your teachers. Will you not use your influence to 
secure at least one enrolment from your school next Monday- 
night ? 

I think you will agree with me that the great need of 
the Sunday school today is trained workers. This Institute 
gives Des Moines teachers an opportunity for the training 
they need. It is within the power of the pastor and super- 
intendent to interest their teachers in our Institute. The 
teachers will not manifest more interest than their leaders. 
We are therefore looking to you. We want you to give 
personal attention to this matter. We want to help your 
teachers. We expect you to get them into our classes. 
We offer you our services. Will you use us ? 



The Campaign for Students ioi 

We feel confident of your co-operation in our efforts to 
increase the efficiency of our Sunday schools. 

Very truly yours, 



Director 

Each student enrolled on the first evening 
should receive a letter urging active co-operation 
in the campaign for new students for the following 
session. The following is a sample letter: 

November 17, 19 11 
Dear Friend: 

I am glad you have arranged to attend our Institute 
this year. We have an excellent program, an exceptionally 
strong faculty, and I am sure we are to have a most helpful 
year together. 

Please be present next Monday night promptly at 7:30. 
Bring notebook and pencil. Dr. Henry F. Cope, general 
secretary of the Religious Education Association, of Chicago, 
will give the opening address. 

We desire to double our enrolment by next Monday 
night. We can do this if each person enrolled will bring 
a new student. May we count on you to help the enrol- 
ment? Please talk the Institute up during the next few 
days. 

There is one other thing you can do for us this week. 
You can call up your pastor and superintendent and ask 
them to visit our Institute next Monday night and hear 
Dr. Cope. We want these men to see our Institute in 
operation. 

We want to be of the largest possible service to the 
Sunday schools of Des Moines. To do this our classes 
must be full. You will think of many ways in which you 
can increase the attendance. 



I02 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Thanking you for your co-operation in our efforts to 
increase the efficiency of the Des Moines Sunday schook, 
I am 

Very truly yours, 



Director 

If the institute has conducted previous sessions, 
the list of former students should be checked and 
a letter written to all whose names are not found 
on the books at the close of the first session. The 
telephone should also be used with this list, each 
one being personally urged to continue his course. 
The following is a suggestive letter for this group : 

October 24, 1913 
Dear Friend: 

I know that you will be interested in learning how the 
Institute is starting out. The initial enrolment is 40 per 
cent larger than that of last year. The spirit is good, and 
the students represent the most capable and most pro- 
gressive Simday-school workers in the city. We have the 
strongest faculty we have ever had. 

There are many innovations this year. A system of 
gongs has been installed to regulate assembly and class 
periods; admittance to the general lecture is by ticket; 
visitors' tickets may be obtained without charge from Miss 
Jones or Miss Garton. 

Everything moves like clockwork; there is the atmos- 
phere of the schoolroom pervading our meetings; and all 
classes are moving ojff with the keenest interest in their 
work. 

But we miss your presence this year. We are anxious 
to have you continue with us during the coming year. 
I am writing this letter for the purpose of urging you to be 



The Campaign for Students 103 

present next Monday evening, and regularly thereafter, if 
possible. 

We need your presence and co-operation, and we 
believe you can secure help in some of our classes. 

It will please me very much if you will drop me a line, 
indicating your attitude toward the Institute for the coming 
year, or, better, call me up by phone and let me explain to 
you any matters that may not be clear about our courses 
or our general plan of managing the Institute. 

We of the faculty are working so hard to make the 
Institute a success that we feel the loss of everyone who 
drops out of our courses. I know you will believe me when 
I say that the burden of the Institute has rested very 
heavily upon the shoulders of those who have been intrusted 
with its administration. We want the children of Des 
Moines to have the best possible instruction in religion. We 
want the teachers to be trained so that they can rightly 
divide the Word. This is our passion. 

We must have your co-operation if we are to succeed 
in our tmdertaking. We trust circimastances will permit 
you to continue your work with us again this year. 

With kindest personal regards, I am 

Very truly yours, 



Director 
As soon as it becomes evident which classes 
are poorly attended an efifort should be made to re- 
cruit members for them. The work of these classes 
should be stressed on succeeding evenings, and an 
earnest effort made to interest special groups of 
teachers by means of the 'Visitor's ticket" plan 
to be discussed in the following chapter. The 
following letters will show how the Cradle Roll, 



I04 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Beginners, and Primary classes of one institute 
were recruited by means of a special program and 
visitors' tickets: 

I. [To all superintendents and pastors] 

October 24, 1913 
Dear Friend: 

Next Monday night at the Institute, we are to stress 
the Cradle Roll, Beginners, and Primary departments. 
We shall have an excellent exhibit of beautiful pictures 
suited to these years. The opening address will deal with 
the needs of these departments. Some valuable leaflets 
and helps will be given out to all who are present. 

We want all of your Elementary and Cradle Roll work- 
ers present at this meeting. We think they should all 
attend the Institute regularly. This visit will show them 
what the Institute can do for them. 

Inclosed find some visitors' tickets. You may have 
more upon request. Please give them out during the week 
to those who are, or should be, interested in the depart- 
ments mentioned above. Fill in the name and address of 
the visitor and sign your own name to each ticket given out. 

We must get our present workers into training, and we 
must induce capable young men and women to prepare 
for work in the Sunday school. The Institute is here to 
train your workers. 

The great interest in Mr. Goodell's class in Supervision 
and Management shows that the superintendents are 
appreciating what the Institute means to them. 

Thanking you for your co-operation in all our efforts to 
promote the Sunday schools of the city, I am 

Very trtily yours. 

Director 



The Campaign for Students 105 

2. [To all students in the institute] 

October 24, 19 13 
Dear Friend: 

The Institute is an assured success. The student body 
consists of the most talented and most progressive church 
workers in the city. But we must have numbers as well as 
quality. We are running at about one-fourth of our capacity. 
The churches of the city owe it to the faculty to fill their classes. 
We must double our present enrolment during the next two 
weeks. The students at the Institute last Monday night 
were enthusiastic in their willingness to do personal work 
among their friends who should be in the Institute. 

Inclosed you will find some visitors' tickets. You may 
have more upon request. Please give these out during the 
week to prospective students whom you can induce to visit the 
Institute next Monday night. Fill in the name and address 
of the visitor and sign your own name to each ticket given out. 

We are making a special effort to reach Cradle Roll 
workers, and Beginners and Primary teachers for next 
Monday night. The program will be of value to all grades, 
but we trust you will make a special effort to get the teachers 
of the little children out to our session next Monday. You may 
promise them an exhibit of beautiful pictures of children and 
child-life and a helpful lecture suited to their department. 

There were 27 new enrolments last Monday night. We 
must double this number next Monday night. And of 
course we can count on you to help. 

Let us give the children of Des Moines the best Sunday 
schools in America. Let us train our workers until they 
have no superiors on the continent. Our children are 
worth it, and (jod expects nothing less of us. 

With kindest personal regards, I am 

Very truly yours. 



Director 



io6 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

The suggestions and sample letters given in 
this chapter are only hints that indicate the nature 
of the campaign for institute students. Such 
campaigns will cost money, but they will bring 
results in immediate enrolments and in a favorable 
public sentiment which will make future campaigns 
easier. 



CHAPTER IX 

METHODS OF PROMOTING THE INSTITUTE 

§1. THE INSTITUTE ITSELF 

It has been insisted in various places in this book 
that no clap-trap methods be used in promoting 
the institute. In this chapter there will be dis- 
cussed a number of legitimate methods of keeping 
the institute and its ideals before the churches of 
the city. It is proper that the very first item men- 
tioned in this connection should be the institute 
itself. It is its own best recommendation to the 
city. No promotion devices can permanently 
float an inefficient school. Students must get 
something of permanent worth from each lecture 
and from each class period. There must be definite 
and specific preparation for each session of the 
institute. The director's first business is to see 
that his school is loo per cent efficient every session. 
This requires faculty meetings, conferences with 
individual faculty members, and a careful inspec- 
tion and supervision of all class work. 

Close attention should be paid to absentees. 
Following each session the faculty members should 
mail the assignment for the next lesson to each 
absentee. The post-card form shown on p, io8 
has been used for this purpose. 

107 



io8 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Each instructor should be supplied with these 
cards and the postage should be provided from the 
regular institute funds. 

Students absent three consecutive sessions and 
students whose attendance or class work is irregu- 
lar should be reported to the director for personal 
attention. Close supervision of both faculty and 



Des Moines Sunday-School Institute 

Des Moines, Iowa 19 . . . 

Dear Friend: 

We are sorry that you were unable to be at the Institute 
last night. Our lesson assignment for next Monday night 
is as follows: 



Trusting that nothing will prevent your attendance next 
Monday night, I am 

Very truly yours, 

InstriLctor 



students will secure the results which will be the 
very best naeans of commending the institute to 
the favor of the commimity. 

§2. MESSAGES TO THE CHURCHES 

The director and faculty and institute promoters 
should take their case to the people. Public sen- 
timent must be created for the newer ideals in 
rehgious education. The people will be found 
open-minded and ready to respond to professional 



Methods of Promoting the Institute 109 

leadership in this field. Many who have not been 
interested in the church schools of the past will 
eagerly respond to the opportunity to prepare for a 
better order of things. 

There is no better means of institute promotion 
than that afforded by the regular Sunday morning 
congregations. Pastors will gladly welcome the 
institute leaders to their pulpits. The messages 
should contain clear-cut statements of the present 
problems of religious education and definite 
information concerning the institute and the service 
it is prepared to render to the churches of the city. 
The author spent twenty successive Sunday morn- 
ings in the different pulpits of Des Moines, and 
the increase in enrolment directly traceable to these 
addresses was 120, or an average of 6 students to 
each address. But the greatest return was not 
the immediate influx of students; far more im- 
portant was the creation of a new point of view in 
the city. The ideas advocated in the institute 
classes will be more easily introduced in the local 
chiurch schools because of these addresses. 

Another means of creating a pubHc sentiment 
in favor of improved methods is the regular 
teachers' meetings and workers' conferences held 
in local churches. The institute leaders should 
accept invitations to address these meetings. The 
new ideas can thus be brought to many who could 
not be induced to attend the institute. 



no City Institute for Religious Teachers 

But a single address is not enough to convert a 
church or school. The story must be told over 
and over again. Each year this public work among 
the churches and schools must be repeated, until 
an atmosphere is created in which the most modem 
methods of religious education can thrive. 

§3. EXHIBITS 

Educational exhibits are an excellent means of 
promoting the ideals of the institute. Among the 
types of exhibits which are within the reach of all 
institutes are the following: 

1. Equipment. — PubHshing houses will gladly 
co-operate with the local committee in preparing 
an exhibit of modem equipment. Maps, charts, 
tables, special-day material, records, etc., may be 
displayed in the institute building. Blue-prints 
of modern church buildings should also be 
exhibited. Special invitations should be sent to 
teachers and ofl&cers of church schools, and to the 
official boards of churches. Lectures should be 
given on the need of modem apparatus in the 
church school. This exhibit may last two or three 
days. It should not be allowed to interfere with 
the regular class work of the institute. 

2. Religious art, — ^An exhibit of religious art is 
always profitable. It is usually best to hold this 
exhibit just before the hoUdays. Local art 
dealers are glad to put on exhibition good prints 



Methods of Promoting the Institute hi 

of the masterpieces of religious art. The best 
books on the subject should also be displayed. 
The lecture of the evening should deal with the 
place of art in the modem church school. 

3. The school library . — A few of the very best 
books on every phase of the church school should 
be assembled. These books should be separated 
by groups and placed on tables, each table being 
in charge of teachers or other persons especially 
instructed to present the special books on their 
table. As students and visitors pass from table 
to table they are introduced to the best books 
available on the different phases of the modern 
church school. 

4. Children's class work, — ^An annual exhibit of 
the work of the children of the schools of the city 
is of great value. Teachers can compare work, 
and children and parents can see what is really 
being done in the schools of the city. 

These exhibits may become annual affairs, and 
special committees may be charged with the various 
exhibits. The value of the exhibits will increase 
with the experience of the committees in charge. 

§4. PROMOTION literature AND REPORTS 

Special letters, reports of the actual work of 
the institute, and the circulation of promotion 
literature are essential to the success of the insti- 
tute. Letters to the pastors and superintendents 



112 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

should be so phrased as to drive home the special 
messages they seek to convey. Here is a sample 
letter written to pastors and superintendents to 
impress upon them their obHgation to promote 
the institute: 

Des Moines, Iowa 
January 5, 191 2 

To the Pastors and Superintendents of Des Moines: 

This is a circular letter, but I want you to read it. I am 
speaking for a faculty of thirteen specialists in Sxmday- 
school work who are pleading for an opportunity to help 
you train your Sunday-school workers. We donate our 
time and our talents to you for the year, but the inclosed 
report will show that you are not appreciating your oppor- 
timities. There are 2,000 Sunday-school positions in 
Des Moines, and only 200 people in training for the 2,000 
places! Over half the Sunday schools in Des Moines have 
no representatives in our Institute! For years you have 
been cryiag, "The field is white unto the harvest hut the 
laborers are few!^' Here is an opportunity to increase the 
laborers. 

The Institute is an assured success. It is the largest and 
best organized institute for the training of Sunday-school 
teachers in America. But the point is the churches of 
Des Moines are not taking full advantage of it, 

Des Moines has for years been known by International 
Sunday-school workers as "the poorest Sunday-school city 
on the map'M We are trying to make it the best. But 
you preachers and superintendents must help us. You 
must get under this load and lift. This Institute is the most 
significant reUgious activity in Des Moines today. Its 
success will mean more to your church than the success 
of any other enterprise to which you could give your time. 



Methods of Promoting the Institute 113 

I want you preachers to turn pastors of your Sunday 
schools for a whole week. I want you to join the superin- 
tendent in making personal calls upon those persons in 
your church who are or who may be induced to become 
Simday-school workers, and urge them for the sake of the 
children to prepare for the teaching service of the church. 

Our next session is Monday evening, January 8. Please 
give us your best efforts to increase the enrolment from 
your church. 

I want to thank those pastors and superintendents who 
have given such loyal support to our efforts. I covet the 
same support and co-operation from all, to the end that 
this Institute may be of the largest service to all the churches 
of Des Moines. 

As a faculty we are here to serve you. Are you getting 
all out of us that you can ? We look to you to fill our classes. 

With an earnest desire to serve, I am 

Very truly yours, 



Director 
At the close of each year printed reports should 
be widely distributed and interest should be 
created in the work of the coming year. A com- 
plete directory should be kept in the director's 
office. The following letters will indicate the 
manner of collecting this directory material. 

I. [To pastors] 

Des Moines, Iowa 

April 29, 191 2 
Dear Friend: 

We are now closing one of the most remarkable series 

of Sunday-school institutes ever held in this country. Our 

enrolment has reached 235, with an average attendance of 



114 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

1 80 each Monday evening since our opening last November. 
The enrohnent represents 41 Sunday schools, from 12 
denominations. 

We are now planning our work for next year. We are 
interested just now in securing the names of a number of 
young men and women in each church whom we can induce 
to prepare for teaching positions in the Sunday school. This 
number should at least equal the niunber now employed in 
your Simday school. 

Most persons now in active service anywhere in the 
church entered such service between the ages of seventeen 
and twenty. We must, therefore, look to this body of 
young people as the source of supply for our future teachers. 
From the students who are between the ages of seventeen 
and twenty, there should be selected by the pastor, superin- 
tendent, and teachers those who have the devotion, tempera- 
ment, and capacity for training in teaching. These yoimg 
people should be urged to prepare for the teaching service 
of the church. 

It is our purpose, through letters and special literature, 
to lay the duty and the dignity of this work upon the minds 
and hearts of this body of young men and women, hoping 
that this may lead many into lives of service in the Simday 
school. We want to put into training a thousand young men 
and women. From this army of trained recruits Des Moines 
could draw its Sunday-school teachers of the future. 

May we not have your co-operation in this effort? I 
shall be pleased to receive from you the names and addresses 
of a niunber of young people of your congregation who in 
your opinion could be developed into good- Sunday-school 
teachers. This list should reach me within ten days. 

Thanking you for your co-operation, I am 

Very truly yours. 



Director 



Methods of Promoting the Institute 115 

2. [To superintendents] 

Des Moines, Iowa 
April 29, 191 2 
Dear Friend: 

The Institute desires to prepare a directory of the 
Sunday-school workers of Des Moines. It will be of great 
service to the cause if you will give us the lists of names 
indicated below. I know I am assigning you an arduous 
task, but I am sure you will render the service willingly 
in the interest of greater Sunday schools in Des Moines: 

1. Names and addresses of all the officers and teachers 
in your school. Give position or office of each person 
named. 

2. Names and addresses of persons now doing Home 
Department work. 

3. Names and addresses of persons who might be induced 
to prepare for Home Department work. 

4. Names and addresses of persons doing Cradle Roll 
work. 

5. Names and addresses of persons who might be induced 
to prepare for Cradle Roll work. 

6. Names and addresses of teachers of Brotherhood 
classes. 

7. Names and addresses of men and women who might 
be induced to prepare to teach adult classes. 

8. Names and addresses of young men and women 
between seventeen and twenty years of age who have the 
qualities of mind and heart for Sunday-school teachers, and 
who should be induced to take training with a view to be- 
coming Sunday-school teachers. This is the teaching force 
of the future. You should consult with the pastor regard- 
ing this list. I have written him regarding the same 
problem. 

If I can have these lists within the next ten days I shall 
appreciate it very much. We propose to put all of these 



ii6 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

people on a mailing list and hope to send them literature 
that will increase their interest in Sunday-school work. 
Thanking you for your co-operation in this work, I am 

Very truly yours, 

Director 
After these names have been collected and card- 
catalogued, each group should be circularized with 
literature suited to the needs of the respective 
groups. It pays the business man to circularize 
prospective customers. It will pay the institute 
leaders to circularize its constituency. Many will 
never enrol in the institute, but all who read the 
literature will become more and more receptive 
of the ideas which the institute is promoting. 

The material for this advertising propaganda 
should include the following: 

1. Institute bulletins, announcements, and re- 
ports. 

2. Invitations to exhibits, special lectures, etc. 

3. Pamphlets on modern church-school methods 
which can be purchased at reasonable rates. As 
an illustration of the material available the follow- 
ing titles are listed: 

Report of the Religious Education Association Commission 
on the Correlation of the Educational Agencies of the 
Local Church. 4 cents each. Religious Education 
Association, 332 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, 111. 

Report of the Teacher Training Commission of the Religious 
Education Association. 2 cents each. Religious Edu- 
cation Association, Chicago, 111. 



Methods of Promoting the Institute 117 

Graded Texts for the Modern Sunday School, Free. Re- 
ligious Education Association, Chicago,; 111. 

Music and Art in the Bible School, Free. Department of 
Religious Education, Drake University, Des Moines, 
Iowa. 

The Child, and Teeth, Tonsils and Adenoids, Free. Metro- 
politan Life Insurance Co., New York, N.Y. 

Reports of Denominational Commissions of Religious 
Education. The Baptist, Episcopal, Disciples, and 
Congregational commissions have issued valuable 
reports. 

4. Valuable promotion literature sent free by 
the various publishing houses. The following are 
worthy of mention: 

The Ideal Sunday School, The University of Chicago Press, 
Chicago, 111. 

The Core of Good Teaching, Scribner, New York, N.Y. 

Principles Underlying the Intermediate Graded Lessons, 
Pilgrim Press, Boston, Mass. 

A New Era in Religious Education, Methodist Book Con- 
cern, New York, N.Y. 

The Material of the Graded Lessons, Presbyterian Board of 
Publication, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Answers to Questions about the Graded Lessons, Presbyterian 
Board of Publication, Philadelphia, Pa. 

The Evangelistic Opportunity Presented by the Graded Lessons. 
Pilgrim Press, Boston, Mass. 

All good circulars and tracts that come to the 
notice of the director or faculty should be secured 
in quantities if possible and wisely distributed 
either by mail or personally at the sessions of the 
institute. 



ii8 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

At the close of each annual session letters should 
go to all students, superintendents, pastors, and 
members of the faculty, thanking them for their 
co-operation and bespeaking their active interest 
in the year which is to follow. 

§5. visitors' tickets and special lectures 

Experience has shown that admission to all 
sessions of the institute must be restricted to those 





Visitor's Ticket 


Admits the person named hereon to one session of the 




Des Moines Sunday School Institute 


Name. . . 




Address. 




Guest of 


Issued by 


Director 





who have paid their tuition fees and to those who 
come as specially invited guests. Regular visitors' 
tickets shotild be printed. These may be secured 
from the secretary or director upon request. 
Special visitors' tickets may be sent out to promote 
the attendance of special groups of people. For 
example, each student might be given a few visitors' 
tickets and asked to invite primary teachers to the 
next session. Upon receipt of a special ticket the 
teacher would be more likely to attend than if 
merely a general invitation had been extended. 



Methods of Promoting the Institute 119 

All visitors' tickets should contain the name and 
address of the visitor and the name of the student 
countersigning the ticket. From these visitors' 
tickets the director secures a valuable mailing list 
of interested people. A satisfactory form for the 
visitor's ticket is shown on page 118. 

§6. THE CONTINUOUS CAMPAIGN 

I. The old dies hard, — Those who are active 
leaders in the promotion of a high-class city insti- 
tute will not find their paths strewn with roses. As 
they look over their city at the end of years of 
t work and note the cold indifference of many and 
the active opposition of a few they will be tempted 
to give way to bitter discouragement. There is 
the apathy of the clergy who will not visit the 
institute; there is the cold indifference of many 
superintendents, and the active opposition of 
others who have no patience with ^' these new- 
fangled methods of running a church school." 
There will be the jealousy of one-time popular 
leaders who have not kept pace with the progress 
of the times, and there may also be the envy of 
oflScers of other organizations in the city who feel 
that the institute should be attached to their 
associations. Its very success will bring it some 
opposition. A new leadership must leave behind 
it the remnants of the old order. In spite of the 
greatest precaution and tact, the director is likely 



I20 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

to be misunderstood and the faculty unappreciated. 
Eighteen faculty members labored without pay 
for three years and never received one word of 
appreciation or encouragement from the clergy, 
from the Superintendents' Union, or from any 
other source save the students for whom they 
labored. This cause is still in the stage of propa- 
ganda, and those who labor in this field must 
expect to be unappreciated in their day and genera- 
tion. They must see far into the future and do 
their work with an abiding faith that the ideals 
which they now cherish will be realized in the 
future provided they faint not nor waver in the 
advocacy of these convictions. 

2. The price of success, — ^A high-grade institute 
can be estabUshed in any city in which there are a 
few consecrated leaders who are willing to pay the 
price of success. From the very beginning the 
institute will secure the active support and co- 
operation of a few of the best people in each church. 
As the years go on, the influence of those who are 
trained in the institute will add to its strength in 
the community. As these graduates strive to 
introduce the newer methods in their local churches 
the battle of the old against the new will be trans- 
ferred from the institute to the local churches. 
The institute will be the ^^ powder house'' to which 
local leaders go for ammunition. Victory will 
always crown the efforts of the insurgents provided 



Methods of Promoting the Institute 121 

they keep sweet and keep constantly agitating the 
newer methods. Then there will be the co- 
operation of an army of pubHc-school teachers 
who will respond to an effort to introduce scientific 
educational methods into the church schools. 
There will always be a few pastors and superin- 
tendents and a host of prominent men and women 
among the laity who can be relied upon to back a 
movement of this kind with all the moral and 
financial support it needs. It may take a Kttle 
time to find these supporters, but they are to be 
found in every city, and the institute leaders must 
prayerfully and patiently toil on until they have 
achieved success. The temptation will come many 
times to lower standards in order to secure the 
support and applause of the crowd, but the leaders 
must never yield to these alluring temptations. 

The workers in this field have the joy which 
comes to those who attack a hard problem, who 
achieve victory over great difl&culties. Theirs is 
the joy of helping to usher in a more efficient system 
of religious instruction for the childhood of the 
city; theirs is the joy of having a large part in 
saving the youth to the church, and the church to 
our American life. An institute is indispensable to 
the religious life of every city. Those who estabhsh 
it must be prepared for great sacrifice and hard toil, 
but their reward is the founding of a city where men 
and women know God and obey his holy will. 



PART II 
COURSES OF INSTRUCTION 



NOTE 

The attention of purchasers of books 
announced in the following bibliographies 
is called to the fact that the prices given 
are subject to change. 



i 



CHAPTER X 
BIBLICAL COURSES 

The biblical courses ofiFered by the institute 
should open up to students the history, geography, 
and literature of the Bible. No attempt should 
be made to connect these courses with the current 
lessons in the church school. Their purpose is to 
establish a broad and comprehensive backgroimd 
which will enable the students to teach the Bible 
with insight, imder standing, and power. While 
the emphasis of the courses should be on content, 
the method of study estabHshed in the institute 
classes will be excellent preparation for the pro- 
spective teacher. 

Standard textbooks should be owned by the 
students, and each class should have access to a 
library selected with special reference to the needs 
of the class. Texts and reference books should 
be modem and constructive. They should aim 
to give the results of modem scholarship wdthout 
introducing the methods and materials of critical 
study. Biblical facts, truths, and characters 
should be so presented that the students leave 
the classes with increased devotion to the holy 
Book, thrilled with a burning desire to teach it 
to others. 

125 



126 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

An institute can easily attempt too wide a range 
of biblical classes. Specialized study should fol- 
low introductory and historical courses. For this 
reason it is not wise to offer the more specialized 
courses during the first years of an institute. The 
institute managers must bear in mind that they 
are not conducting a theological seminary. All 
their courses should have direct bearing upon the 
work of the church school. The five courses 
outlined below will furnish the history, biography, 
and geography which are required in all depart- 
ments of the church school. 

§1. THE OLD TESTAMENT 

There are two ways in which the study of the 
Old Testament may be undertaken. The first 
would be an outline study of the entire body of 
its history and literature. This is desirable for 
all Simday-school teachers; and yet it has the 
disadvantage that it must inevitably take two 
years' time. The four books by Kent which are 
recommended have been used by institute classes, 
and it has been the experience of successful 
teachers that fifteen lessons are needed for each 
volume if adequate reference reading is required. 
Any briefer treatment of this great subject-matter 
would only be fragmentary. Yet if we are plan- 
ning a three years' course, two years is dispro- 
portionate for the Old Testament. 



Biblical Courses 127 

It is possible, however, to cover the Old Testa- 
ment in a year in a way that will make it significant 
in itself, and as a preparation for the understanding 
of the New Testament. This can be secured by a 
study of the history of Hebrew religion with col- 
lateral reading on the history which was the 
background of the religion. The most important 
element in the Old Testament for the under- 
standing of its religion is prophecy. This is at 
the same time a very difficult study because the 
prophecies are not arranged chronologically and 
because the literature is highly poetic. The most 
significant prophecies, however, may easily be 
studied in such an arrangement as is given in 
Chamberlin, The Hebrew Prophets ($1.00; The 
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111.). If 
this is used as a text the books by Kent noted 
below should be read collaterally. The course 
may thus be completed in thirty lessons. A skil- 
ful teacher could help the class to a very thorough 
understanding of the Old Testament history up 
to the time of Nehemiah. 

It should be noted that it is of great importance 
that the study of the life of Christ should be 
preceded by a consideration of the historical 
conditions of the four centuries before his birth. 
This period is covered in Kent, Makers and 
Teachers of Judaism^ and in the book which is 
recommended as a beginning for the Ufe of 



128 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Christ, Mathews, A History of New Testament 
Times in Palestine. 

The two years' course in Old Testament history 
can be well covered with the following texts: 

Kent, The Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History. 

$1 . oo. Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
, Founders and Rulers of United Israel. $i.oo. 

Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
, The Kings and Prophets of Israel and Judah. $i . oo. 

Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
-, Makers and Teachers of Judaism. $i . oo. Scrib- 



ner, New York, N.Y. 

The following reference books should be avail- 
able for the exclusive use of this class: 

Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible. One-volume edition, 

$5.00. Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
Kent, A History of the Hebrew People. 2 vols., $1.25 each. 

Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
, A History of the Jewish People. $1.25. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 
Riggs, A History of the Jewish People. $1.25. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 
Sayce, The Early History of the Hebrews. $2.25. Mac- 

millan, New York, N.Y. 
Kent, Biblical Geography and History. $1 . 50. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 
Houghton, Hebrew Life and Thought. $1 . 50. The Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 
Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets. Macmillan, 

New York, N.Y. 
Vernon, The Religious Value of the Old Testament in the 

Light of Modern Scholarship. $0.75. Thomas Y. 

Crowell & Co., New York, N.Y. 



Biblical Courses 129 

Comill, The Prophets of Israel. $i.cx5. Open Court 

Publishing Co., Chicago, 111. 
Breasted, History of the Ancient Egyptians, $1 . 25. Scrib- 

ner, New York, N.Y. 
Goodspeed, A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians. 

$1 . 25. Scribner, New York, N.Y. 

§2. THE LIFE OF CHRIST 

This class should open its work with a study of 
the history of the Jews in the time of Christ, using 
some such text as Mathews, A History of New 
Testament Times in Palestine ($1.00; Macmillan, 
New York, N.Y.). The course covers the period 
from the return from the exile to the fall of Jeru- 
salem. After the historical setting has been estab- 
Kshed, the class should take up the systematic 
study of the life of Christ. The following books 
are suggested as texts for this course: 

Burton and Mathews, Constructive Studies in the Life of 

Christ. $1.00. The University of Chicago Press, 

Chicago, 111. 
Stevens and Burton, Harmony of the Gospels. $1.00. 

Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
Gilbert, The Students Life of Jesus. $0.50. George H. 

Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Kent, The Life and Teachings of Jesus. $1 . 00. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 

Reference books available for the exclusive use. 
of this class should include the following: 
Rhees, Life of Jesus. $1.25. Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
Morrison, The Jews under Rome. $1 . 50. Putnam, New 
York, N.Y. 



130 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Masterman, Studies in Galilee, $0.75. The University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 
Riggs, A History of the Jewish People, $1.25. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 
Rail, New Testament History, $1.50. Abingdon Press, 

New York, N.Y. 
Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus, $0. 75. 

Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York, N.Y. 
Sanday, Outlines of the Life of Christ, $0.50. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 
The Apocrypha, revised version. $0.75. Thomas Nelson 

& Sons, New York, N.Y. 
Josephus, Works, One-volume edition. $1.50. E. P. 

Dutton & Co., New York, N.Y. 

§3. THE APOSTOLIC AGE 

This course will cover the history of the early 
church, giving especial emphasis to the life and 
work of the apostle Paul. A satisfactory text 
for this class is Gilbert, A Short History of Chris- 
tianity in the Apostolic ^g^ ($1 . 00; The University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111.). 

The following reference books will be found 
valuable: 

Weinel, St, Paul, the Man and His Work, $2 . 50. Putnam, 
New York, N.Y. 

Ramsey, St. Paul, the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, 
$3.00. Putnam, New York, N.Y. 

Purves, Christianity in the Apostolic Age, $1.25. Scrib- 
ner, New York, N.Y. 

Ferris, The Formation of the New Testament, $0.90. 
American Baptist Publishing Society, New York, N.Y. 

Fisher, The Beginnings of Christianity, $2 . 50. Scribner, 
New York, N.Y. 



Biblical Courses 131 

Hodge, New Testament Authors and Their Work. $0.30. 

A. G. Seller, New York, N.Y. 
Dobschiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, Putnam, 

New York, N.Y. 

§4. BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION 

This course should acquaint the students with 
the origin, authorship, content, etc., of the books 
of the Bible. An excellent text is Raymont, The 
Use of the Bible in the Education of the Young 
($1 . 00; Longmans, Green & Co., New York, N.Y.). 

Helpful reference books are: 

Mutch, History of the Bible. $0.50. Pilgrim Press, 
Boston, Mass. 

Robinson, The Story of Our Bible. $0.50. Jennings & 
Graham, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Waring, Christianity and Its Bible. $1.25. The Univer- 
sity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 

Wood and Grant, The Bible as Literature, $1 . 50. Abing- 
don Press, New York, N.Y. 

Bennett and Adeney, A Biblical Introduction. $2.00. 
Thomas Whittaker, New York, N.Y. 

McFadyen, Introduction to the Old Testament. $1.75. 
A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York, N.Y. 

Bacon, An Introduction to the New Testament. $0.75. 
Macmillan, New York, N.Y. 

Ferris, The Formation of the New Testament. $0 . 90. Ameri- 
can Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 

§ 5. THE HOLY LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 

Teachers in the church school having classes 
from the sixth grade on through the high-school 
period will find a definite and accurate knowledge 



132 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

of the geography of the Holy Land and the manners 
and customs of the Hebrew people to be indis- 
pensable. The Bible narratives must be made to 
live; they must become a part of the vivid, 
concrete mental imagery of children. This 
course includes map drawing, modeling, etc. The 
Kent-Madsen series of classroom maps ($5.00; 
Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pa.) will be 
satisfactory for classroom purposes. 

The following books are recommended for this 
class. The first three in each list are satisfactory 
as general texts, and the others should be available 
for reference reading: 

I. biblical geography 

Calkin, Historical Geography of Bible Lands. $1.00. 

Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Kent, Biblical Geography and History, $1.50. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 
Stewart, The Land of Israel. $1 . 50. Fleming H. Revell 

Co., New York, N.Y. 
George Adam Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy 

Land. $3.75. George H. Doran & Co., New York, 

N.Y. 
Worcester, On Holy Ground. 2 vols., $1.50 each. J. B. 

Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Paton, Jerusalem in Bible Times. $1.00. The University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 
Leary, The Real PalestUve of Today. $1.25. McBride, 

Nast & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Finnemore, Peeps at Many Lands, Egypt and the Holy Land. 

$0.60. Adam and Charles Black, London. 



Biblical Courses 133 

Forbush, The Travel Lessons on the Old Testament (with 

stereographs) . $1.50. Underwood & Underwood, New 

York, N.Y. 
, The Travel Lessons on the Life of Jesus (with 

stereographs). $1.50. Underwood & Underwood, 

New York, N.Y. 
Masterman, Studies in Galilee. $1.00. The University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 

2. BIBLE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 

Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs, $0.75. Fleming H. 

Revell Co., New York, N.Y. 
Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus, $0.75. 

Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York, N.Y. 
Freeman, Handbook of Bible Manners and Customs. $2 . 00. 

Eaton & Mains, New York, N.Y. 
Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life. $0. 50. George 

H. Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Grant, The Peasantry of Palestine. $1 . 50. Pilgrim Press, 

Boston, Mass. 
Rice, Orientalisms in Bible Lands. $1.00. American 

Sunday School Union, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Lees, Village Life in Palestine. $1.25. Longmans, Green 

& Co., New York, N.Y. 

3. MAP DRAWING AND MODELING 

Hurlbut, Bible Atlas. $2.00. Rand McNally & Co., 

Chicago, 111. 
Littlefield, Hand-work in the Sunday School. $1.00. 

Sunday School TimeSy Philadelphia, Pa. 
Maltby, Map Modeling. $0.75. A. Flanagan & Co., 

Chicago, 111. 



CHAPTER XI 
DEPARTMENTAL COURSES 

Every institute must provide for departmental 
specialization. The graded church school must 
be taken for granted. The institute cannot aflford 
to take any notice of the old ungraded schools now 
so rapidly passing into history. 

The nomenclature and age limits of the depart- 
ments of the graded church school are still in the 
stage of experimentation and debate. Scientific 
child-study must be the basis of methodology in 
both secular and reUgious education. There must 
soon be worked out a unified program of education 
in which the classification and curricula of the two 
systems of schools will be in perfect agreement. 
In the meantime the institute must organize its 
classes on the basis of the commonly accepted 
scheme of classification and so instruct its students 
that they may be capable of introducing such 
modifications in the system as may be demanded by 
scientific experimentation. 

The present custom is to divide the church 
school into three general divisions, viz., elementary, 
secondary, and adult. Many institutes feel that 
they can maintain only one class for each of these 
divisions. In this case it must be insisted that 

134 



Departmental Courses 135 

the work of each subdivision be carefully studied 
by the entire group. For example, a class in ele- 
mentary work should study first the Beginners, 
then the Primary, and finally the Junior work. 
There are many reasons why a Primary teacher 
should be familiar with the work of the Beginners 
and Junior departments. Likewise, teachers in 
all other departments should know the nature of 
the work which precedes and follows their own 
courses. But wherever registration will at all 
justify it there should be separate classes for each 
subdivision. 

The needs of the various groups of teachers are 
so comprehensive that they cannot be adequately 
covered by a single textbook. Each teacher must 
study child psychology, methodology, organiza- 
tion and management, music, art, content of 
curriculum, etc. These needs involve a series of 
texts, and it is not probable that they will ever be 
satisfactorily covered by a single volume. It will 
therefore always be difficult to find suitable text- 
books for departmental classes. It will usually 
be best to ask the students to purchase two or 
three standard books on various phases of the 
work of the class and then insist upon the purchase 
of a Ubrary of reference books which can be the 
exclusive property of the class. During the year's 
work every member will be made famiUar with 
each of the selected reference books and urged 



136 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

to add the entire list to his own private library as 
rapidly as possible. Some churches are willing 
to purchase the entire list of recommended books 
for their representatives in the various classes, 
and add them to the local church libraries at the 
conclusion of the courses. 

Teachers of these departmental classes should 
relate the class work to the actual teaching prob- 
lems of their students. Each week the lesson 
assignments should include material which would 
require observation and close analysis of the 
pupiFs own class or school. In this way theory is 
related to practice. 

The following departmental classes are included 
in the work of a completely organized institute. 

§ I. THE BEGINNERS OR KINDERGARTEN 
DEPARTMENT 

This class is for teachers of children four and 
five years of age. The course could well open with 
five lessons on the study of the kindergarten child, 
using Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, chap, 
iii, as the basis of class study and supplementing 
it with assignments from St. John, Child Nature 
and Child Nurture, and Danielson, Lessons for 
Beginners, and other references. This work might 
be followed by five lessons on organization, equip- 
ment, training of assistant teachers, and the 
building of programs, following the outUne in 



Departmental Courses 137 

Athearn, The Church School, chap. v. Five lessons 
might then be given on special and regular pro- 
grams, music, and art. The songs appropriate 
to these grades should be learned, and the best 
songbooks discussed. Ferris, The Sunday Kinder- 
garten, may properly form the basis of these lessons. 
There will remain fifteen lessons which may be 
devoted to ^^type'' lessons appropriate to the 
department. The instructor should go through 
the lessons of the two years in this department 
and select the types of lessons used to illustrate 
the general lesson themes. One or two lessons of 
each type should then be presented as models 
which will illustrate the best methods of presenting 
all lessons of similar type. These '^type^' lessons 
should be presented with great care in order that 
the students may observe the principles involved, 
and not become mere imitators. 

Danielson, Lessons for Beginners, and Ferris, 
The Sunday Kindergarten, are suggested as two 
books which should be purchased by each pupil at 
the opening of the course. The following reference 
books should be purchased for class use, and each 
student should be encouraged to purchase eventually 
the entire list as a personal working Kbrary : 

Complete outfit of pictures, teacher's manuals, and 
pupil's supplies for the Beginners Department of the Inter- 
national and the Completely Graded Series, from denomina- 
tional publishing houses and Scribner, New York, N.Y. 



138 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, $0.50. George H. 

Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Atheam, The Church School. $1.00. Pilgrim Press, 

Boston, Mass. 
DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, $0. 75. Dodd, 

Mead & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Proudfoot, Child^s Christ Tales, $0.75. A. Flanagan & 

Co., Chicago, 111. 
Herbst, Tales and Customs of the Ancient Hebrews, $0.35. 

A. Flanagan & Co., Chicago, 111. 
Cragin, Kindergarten Stories for the Sunday School and 

Home, $1.25. George H. Doran & Co., New York, 

N.Y. 
Hildreth, Clay Modeling in the School Room, $0.25. 

Milton Bradley & Co., Springfield, Mass. 
Hill, Song Stories for the Kindergarten. $1 . 50. Clayton 

F. Summy Co., Chicago, 111. 
Walker & Jenks, Songs and Games for Little Ones, $2 . 00. 

Oliver Ditson Co., Boston, Mass. 
Paulsson, Holiday Songs, $2.00. Milton Bradley Co., 

Springfield, Mass. 
Clifford, Ring Songs and Games. $0. 75. Thomas Charles 

Co., Chicago, 111. 
St. John, Stories and Story Telling. $0. 50. Pilgrim Press, 

Boston, Mass. 

§ 2. THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT 

This class is for teachers of children six, seven, 
and eight years of age. The lessons in this course 
wiU follow the same general plan as those of the 
Beginners course. At least five introductory 
lessons should deal with the psychology of the 
primary child. These lessons should be based 



Departmental Courses 139 

on Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher^ chap, iv, 
and collateral readings from Harrison, A Study 
of Child Nature, and DuBois, The Natural Way. 
This work should be followed by five lessons on 
organization, equipment, scope of curriculum, and 
program, based on Athearn, The Church School, 
chap. vi. Following this work five lessons should 
be given on handwork, special programs, music, and 
art. The last fifteen lessons of the course should 
be given over to the study of ^^type" lessons, 
selected from the themes included in the three 
years' work of this department. These type 
lessons should include dramatization, missions, 
construction, helpfulness, worship, etc. The 
principles involved in each group of lessons should 
be clearly pointed out, and students should be 
required to outUne and present specific lessons to 
illustrate the principles involved in the typical 
lessons studied. 

Pupils may be asked to purchase Thomas, 
Primary Lesson Detail, and Chamberlin and Kern, 
Child Religion in Song and Story, and the class 
should have for constant use the following Primary 
teachers' Ubrary: 

Complete outfit of pictures, teacher's manuals and 
pupil's supplies of the Primary Department of the Inter- 
national and the Completely Graded Series, from denomi- 
national publishing houses and Scribner, New York, N.Y. 
Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher. $0.50. George H. 

Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 



I40 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Athearn, The Church School, $i . oo. Pilgrim Press, Bos- 
ton, Mass. 
Chamberlin and Kern, Child Religion in Song and Story: 

I, The Child in His World; II, Walks with Jesus in His 

Own Country. $i . 25 each. The University of Chicago 

Press, Chicago, 111. 
Thomas, Primary Lesson Detail, $0.60. Pilgrim Press, 

Boston, Mass. 
Bryant, How to Tell Stories to Children. $1 . 00. Houghton 

Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass. 
Goodridge, With Scissors and Paste, $0. 25. A. Flanagan 

& Co., Chicago, 111. 
Stuart, Story of the Masterpieces, $1.00. Methodist 

Book Concern, New York, N.Y. 
Danielson & Conant, Songs for Little People. $0.60. 

Pilgrim Press, Boston, Mass. 
Jenks and Rust, Song Echoes from Childland. $2.00. 

Oliver Ditson Co., Chicago, 111. 
Scantelbury, Homes of the World^s Babies. $0.50. A. 

Flanagan & Co., Chicago, 111. 

§3. THE JUNIOR DEPARTMENT 

This class is for teachers of children nine, ten, 
eleven, and twelve years of age. The course 
should open with four or five lessons on the pre- 
adolescent child. Weigle, The Pupil and the 
TecLcher, chap, v, with collateral readings from 
Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, will 
form a suitable basis for these lessons. Five 
lessons may follow on organization, nature, and 
scope of the curriculum, equipment, and program, 
based on Athearn, The Church School, chap. vii. 



Departmental Courses 141 

Five lessons may now follow on drill work and 
construction and expressional lessons. Little- 
field, Hand-work in the Sunday School, would be 
a satisfactory guide for these lessons. The course 
should close with fifteen type lessons so selected 
as to exemplify the various kinds of lessons in- 
cluded in the four years of this department. 
Thomas, Junior Lesson Detail, will be suggestive 
in this connection. Dramatization, construction, 
worship, drill, appreciation lessons, study lessons, 
etc., must all be studied by means of type 
lessons. 

The pupils may be asked to purchase Thomas, 
Junior Lesson Detail, and ChamberUn, Intro- 
duction to the Bible for Teachers of Children. Refer- 
ence books available for constant class use should 
include the following: 

Teacher^s manuals and pupiPs supplies for Junior grades 
of the International and the Completely Graded Series, 
from denominational publishing houses and Scribner, New 
York, N.Y. 
Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher. $0.50. George H. 

Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Atheam, The Church School. $1.00. Pilgrim Press, 

Boston, Mass. 
Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, $1.25. Mac- 

millan, New York, N.Y. 
Heffron, Lessons in Chalk Modeling. $1 . 00. Educational 

Publishing Co., Chicago, 111. 
Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs. $0.75. Fleming 

H. Revell Co., New York, N.Y. 



142 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

Scares, Heroes of Israel. Pupil's Textbook. $i.oo; 
Teacher's Manual, $i.oo. The University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago, 111. 

Chamberlin, Introduction to the Bible for Teachers of Chil- 
dren, $i.oo. The University of Chicago Press, Chi- 
cago, 111. 

Littlefield, Hand-work in the Sunday School, $0.75. Sunday 
School Times Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Stuart, Story of the Masterpieces. $1.00. Methodist 
Book Concern, New York, N.Y. 

Winchester, Worship and Song. $0.60. Pilgrim Press, 
Boston, Mass. 

§4. THE INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT 

This class is for teachers of children thirteen, 
fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen years of age. A 
number of institutes have divided this department 
on the basis of sex and organized a class for the 
teachers of adolescent boys and another class for 
the teachers of adolescent girls. This practice 
should be discouraged. The practice of segre- 
gating boys' and girls' classes in the church schools 
is the source of very much harm. It magnifies 
the difference of the sexes and gives rise to the very 
problems which such segregation is supposed to 
solve. Coeducation has justified itself in our 
American life; there is no desire for segregation 
by educators of standing or by the public in the 
field of secular education, and an attempt to force 
segregation into the church schools will come to 
naught save to make its advocates ridiculous in 



Departmental Courses 143 

the eyes of the educators of the country. A single 
mixed class will meet the needs of any institute. 

The course should begin with five lessons on 
normal adolescence. Weigle, The Pupil and the 
Teacher^ chap, vi, and Coe, The Spiritual Life, 
chaps, i and ii, will be suitable for these lessons. 
Five lessons may then be given to the problems of 
adolescent development, organization, equipment, 
expressional activity, and program, using Athearn, 
The Church School, chap. viii. This work should 
be followed by a few lessons on the scope and 
content of the Intermediate curriculum and the 
remainder of the year should be devoted to the 
presentation of type lessons. Among the type 
lessons in this department none are more impor- 
tant than those that show how to teach biography 
so that social goodness is made the test of conduct 
(see The Church School, p. 189). Some time must 
also be taken to show how the lessons of this period 
may be related to the lessons in general history 
which the high schools are teaching to the same 
pupils. At the close of these type lessons the 
teachers should be perfectly at home with the 
matter and method of the Intermediate Depart- 
ment. 

The class may be asked to purchase Athearn, 
The Church School, and Chamberlin, The Hebrew 
Prophets. This is not the time to study the prob- 
lems of abnormal adolescence, and books written 



144 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

from that standpoint should not be used as texts 
or reference books. The following books should 
be available for the use of this class: 

Mark, The Unfolding of Personality. $i.oo. The Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, $0.50. George H. 
Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 

Atheam, The Church School. $1.00. Pilgrim Press, 
Boston, Mass. 

Betts, The Recitation. $0.60. Houghton Mifflin Co., 
Boston, Mass. 

King, The High School Age. $1.00. Bobbs-Merrill Co., 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

Coe, The Spiritual Life. $1.00. Fleming H. Revell Co., 
New York, N.Y. 

Hall, From Youth to Manhood. $0. 50. Association Press, 
New York, N.Y. 

Slattery, The Girl in Her Teens. $0.50. Pilgrim Press, 
Boston, Mass. 

Reisner, Social Plans for Young People. $0.75. Methodist 
Book Concern, New York, N.Y. 

Jenks, Life Questions of High School Boys. $0 . 40. Asso- 
ciation Press, New York, N.Y. 

Johnson, The Problems of Boyhood. $1.00. The Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 

Sisson, The Essentials of Character. $1.00. Macmillan, 
New York, N.Y. 

Calkin, Historical Geography of Bible Lands. $1.00. 
Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Chamberlin, The Hebrew Prophets. $1.00. The Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 

Seignabos, History of Ancient Civilization. $1.25. Scrib- 
ner, New York, N.Y. 



Departmental Courses 145 

Eichhorn, Songs for the Sunday School. $0.60. A. S. 

Barnes & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Shepardson and Jones, Scripture and Song in Worship, 

$0.40. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 

Outline of courses offered by the American Institute of 
Sacred Literature for high-school grades. The University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 

§5. THE SENIOR DEPARTMENT 

This class is for teachers of young people seven- 
teen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty years of age. 
The course may well begin with five lessons on the 
psychology of the Senior student. Weigle, The 
Pupil and the Teacher ^ chap, vii, with references 
to Cressey, The Church and Young Men^ and 
Slattery, The Girl and Her Religion, will furnish 
a basis for these lessons. Two or three lessons 
may now be given on vocational guidance, using 
Bloomfield, Vocational Guidance, as a basis. Five 
lessons should be devoted to the nature of the 
curriculum, expressional activities, organization, 
and equipment, following the outline in Athearn, 
The Church School, chap. ix. Two or three lessons 
should be given to worship, music, and art. The 
remainder of the year should be devoted to a study 
of the content of the curriculum of the Senior 
Department, methods of presentation, and class- 
room management. 

It is especially difficult to find suitable class 
texts for this class. The first half of the course 



146 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

can be handled most satisfactorily by the use of 
an outline, with reports on definite assignments 
to a well-selected Kbrary. The last part can be 
more easily conducted if the pupils own such texts 
as Burgess, The Life of Christ, and Walker, Great 
Men of the Christian Church, (For a classified 
bibliography adapted to the Senior grades see 
Athearn, The Church School, pp. 272-78.) The 
following reference books should be available for 
this class: 

Cressey, The Church and Young Men. $1.25. Fleming 

H. Revell Co., New York, N.Y. 
Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, $0.50. George H. 

Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Athearn, The Church School, $1.00. Pilgrim Press, 

Boston, Mass. 
Reisner, Social Plans for Young People, $0.75. Metho- 
dist Book Concern, New York, N.Y. 
King, The Moral and Religious Challenge of Our Times, 

%i . 50. Macmillan, New York, N.Y. 
Slattery, The Girl and Eer Religion. $1.50. Pilgrim 

Press, Boston, Mass. 

Senior texts of the International Graded Series, from 
any denominational publishing house. 

Senior texts of the Completely Graded Series, from 
Scribner, New York, N.Y. 

Outline of American Institute of Sacred Literature 
courses suited to Senior grades, from The University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 
Walker, Great Men of the Christian Church. $1.25. The 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 
Burgess, Life of Christ. $1 . 00. The University of Chicago 

Press, Chicago, 111. 



Departmental Courses 147 

Bloomfield, Vocational Education. $1 . 00. Houghton 

Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass. 
Poisons, Choosing a Vocation. $1.00. Houghton Mifflin 

Co., Boston, Mass. 
Bradford, The Messages of the Masters. $0.65. T. Y. 

Crowell & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Brown, The Modern Man^s Religion. $1.00. Pilgrim 

Press, Boston, Mass. 

§ 6. THE ADULT DEPARTMENT 

This class is for teachers of pupils over twenty 
years of age. It is one of the most difl&cult classes 
to hold together. The students are usually not 
interested in newer methods, and many of them 
do not take kindly to suggestions of change in 
organization or management. They want con- 
tent, not method. Their habits are set and they 
need such a presentation of the problems of the 
religion of the adult as will lead both to new 
methods and to new content. 

The following texts are recommended: 

Coe, The Religion of a Mature Mind. $1.25. Fleming 

H. Revell Co., Chicago, 111. 
Cope, The Efficient Laymen. $1.00. Fleming H. Revell 

Co., New York, N.Y. 
Wood, Adult Class Study. $0.75. Pilgrim Press, Boston, 

Mass. 

A, classified bibliography on the elective courses 
appropriate for adult classes will be found in 
Athearn, The Church School, pp. 283-91. 



CHAPTER XII 
PROFESSIONx\L AND GENERAL COURSES 

The number of professional and general courses 
oflFered by a city institute must be limited to the 
needs of religious teachers, and the courses offered 
must be of such a nature that they cannot be 
adequately provided as a part of the departmental 
or biblical courses. All teachers need psychology 
and pedagogy, and this work cannot be given as 
a part of any other course. All elementary teach- 
ers need story-telling, but the work of the depart- 
mental classes cannot include a discussion of the 
technique of story-telling. 

On the other hand, most classes need missionary 
and temperance instruction, but it is easily possible 
to provide adequately for these topics in the 
regular work of the other classes. For this reason 
the city institute will not be justified in attempting 
to conduct classes in these subjects. The follow- 
ing courses will supplement and complete the 
courses already outlined. 

§ I. ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY 

All who have the responsibility of training and 
caring for children should know the laws of the 
unfolding mind and the approved methods of 

148 



Professional and General Courses 149 

teaching. This class is designed for church-school 
teachers, but it will be helpful to public-school 
teachers and parents. The mind which the child 
takes to the church school is the same mind which 
he has at home and in the day school, and the same 
laws of pedagogy must be applied by the church 
and the home. The textbooks recommended for 
this class are Betts, The Mind and Its Education 
($1.25. D. Appleton & Co., New York, N.Y.), 
and Betts, The Recitation ($0.60. Houghton 
Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass.). 

The following reference books should be avail- 
able for class use: 

James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology and Life's Ideals. 

$1 . 50. Henry Holt & Co., New York, N.Y. 
Bagley, Class Room Management, $1.50. Macmillan, 

New York, N.Y. 
Seashore, Psychology in Daily Life, $1.50. D. Appleton 

& Co., New York, N.Y. 
Calkins, A Handbook in Psychology, $1.50. Macmillan, 

New York, N.Y. 
Dewey, How We Think, $1.00. D. C. Heath & Co., 

Boston, Mass. 
Colgrove, The Teacher and the School, $1.00. Scribner, 

New York, N.Y. 
McMurry, How to Study, $1 . 50. Macmillan, New York, 

N.Y. 
Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, $1 . 50. 

Macmillan, New York, N.Y. 
Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, $0.50. George H. 

Doran & Co., New York, N.Y. 



150 City Institute for Religious Teachers 

§ 2. supervision and management 
This class is intended for superintendents and 
officers. It will study organization, management, 
gradation, discipline, program, finances, records 
and reports, teachers' meetings, and kindred 
topics. Each church school in the city should 
have one or more representatives in this class, 
including its superintendent. 

The work in this class may be based upon such 
a text as Cope, The Modern Sunday School in 
Principle and Practice ($1 .00. Fleming H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, 111.), but each student should own 
in addition to the text one or more of the following 
books and the entire list should be available for 
class use: 

Cope, Efficiency in the Sunday School. $1.00. George 

H. Doran Co., Chicago, 111. 
, The Evolution of the Sunday School, $0.75. 

Pilgrim Press, Boston, Mass. 
Meyer, The Graded Sunday School in Principle and Practice, 

$0.75. Methodist Book Concern, New York, N.Y. 
Atheam, The Church School. $1.00. Pilgrim Press, 

Boston, Mass. 
Burton and Mathews, Principles and Ideals of the Sunday 

School, $1.00. The University of Chicago Press, 

Chicago, 111. 
Hurlbut, Organizing and Building Up the Sunday School, 

$0.65. Methodist Book Concern, New York, N.Y. 
Paris, The Sunday School at Work, $1.25. Presbyterian 

Board of Publications, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Hut chins, Graded Social Service for the Sunday School. 

$0.75. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago; 111. 



Professional and General Courses 151 

§ 3. story-telling 

The value of the story as an instrument of edu- 
cation is now being recognized everywhere. This 
class will provide the teachers in the church schools 
of the city with an opportunity to gain skill in 
selecting and telling Bible stories. Special stress 
should be given to the educational value of the 
story, methods of story-telling, and source mate- 
rial for Bible stories. 

The textbooks recommended for this course 
are St. John, Stories and Story-Telling ($0.50. 
Pilgrim Press, Boston, Mass.) and Worcester, 
On Holy Ground (2 vols., $1 . 50 each. Lippincott 
& Co., Philadelphia, Pa.). 

The following reference books should be pro- 
vided for the use of this class. 

Bryant, How to Tell Stories to Children. $1 . 00. Houghton 

Mifflin Co., New York, N.Y. 
McClintock, Literature in the Elementary School, $1.00. 

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. 
Houghton, Telling Bible Stories. $1 . 50. Scribner, New 

York, N.Y. 
Endicott, Stories of the Bible. 3 vols. $0.60 each. Edu- 
cational Publishing Co., Chicago, 111. 
Cragin, Kindergarten Stories for the Sunday School and 

Home. $1.25. George H. Doran & Co., New York, 

N.Y. 
Davidson, The Old Testament Story Told to the Young. 

$1.50. Dana, Estes & Co., Boston, Mass. 



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